- Venue
- Shrewsbury Museum & Art Gallery
- Location
- West Midlands
Helen and Newton Harrison’s touring exhibition sits well in Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery. Work developed to explore a future dominated by rising sea levels, viewed in one of the most land locked counties in England is a surprise. The impact of the work however is somehow made more significant by this distancing, revealing the adjustments we all need to face regardless of location.
The main installation, a map in relief of the UK has the changes in surrounding water levels projected on to it in its position on the floor. The land re drawn by the changes of the water lines is startling and enthralling. An audio commentary, maps and texts surround this providing visions, predictions and propositions as to how land changes might be managed, re occupied and utilised.
The proposals the artists make feel different than just another lecture on climate change. They take facts, make suggestions and raise questions in a creative yet pragmatic way. Focusing on specific models of settlement within the UK, the cultural effects the ocean rise will have on living arrangements is explored. Ecological thinking versus the economic is a crucial focus, determining how we respond to troubling CO2 levels and work with the earth.
Underlying the science there seems to be a genuine consideration of place, the ‘much loved island’ that is Britain. David Haley and Sheilagh Jevons allied exhibition ‘Greenhouse Shropshire’ in a separate space pulls together art works and objects from the museums own collection. The response this creates is one rooted in the history of landscape, mans relationship to the environment and the natural world. It is the natural objects and historical maps which have the most resonance in this part of the show, a well struck balance to the Harrison’s project. It feels cosy without being inwardly provincial.
In a town where sandbags are a permanent feature outside many front doors questioning how we view our future with water in this context is particularly pertinent. The work in the gallery as a starting point for re thinking settlement patterns is successful, for someone not living in immediate contact with a river or the coast. The presentation in a local context provides a jolt into the reality of the subject.
Far from being a doom filled apocalyptic vision, Greenhouse Britain is a challenging study of an inevitable event. The proposition of a high rise hanging garden provoked an intriguing visual image of an altered landscape and through the text and audio the viewer is challenged to create their own visions of the future and to re-imagine personal environments. Importantly as the artists point out that catastrophe ought to be redefined as opportunity whether these thoughts begin in a gallery or elsewhere.
