Richard Glynn
Richard Glynn presents two projects. The first is a study of one of the most intensively industrialised sectors of the economy, and one which every citizen is dependent upon, but which only roughly 3% of the UK workforce are employed in. The basis of modern agribusiness has been radically revised in the space of a generation, and over the same timeframe the number of consumers able to have any understanding of how their food has been produced has been similarly transformed. Yet alternative methods of production and distribution have been pioneered, and secured a small, but viable foothold in the marketplace. Glynn’s study alights upon a particular farm within the latter category. It is an organic dairy farm run upon humane principles. Unusually, the business controls the entire vertical chain of production and distribution, rather than being dictated to by supermarkets, and yet is owned and managed by a single entrepreneurial team. How, Glynn asks, to picture and symbolize a process, rather than the product, whose appears by definition is the same as those of competitors? How also to represent that this is an alternative model? One answer has been to document the entire process of production and distribution: the owner has his own bottling plant for milk and his own delivery system and sales service. In what might be described as the post-industrial model under scrutiny here, the principle might be empathy – for both the consumer and each animal involved in the production process. I use the word each as Glynn describes his studies of cows as “portraits”. Though each animal is tagged and numbered, each image captures their individual characteristics, in close-up focus, and is presented at a large scale to convey their dignity and grandeur. Rather than viewing animals as units of production alone, we are entranced by the lustrous textures of skin and fur, and of the sense of an individual consciousness. This model farm, Glynn proposes, is a microcosm of how we might yet be able to collectively function as a society: as with all steps towards the good life, it better enables us to see the difference between cost and value.
The second project is in its infancy. The central tower of the Bowes Museum in Barnard Castle was designed as a ballroom but never completed. Now it is being transformed into specialised storage and a library. How will the observed calm of these forgotten spaces change as they are returned to the bustle of a working museum?
