Archive / Repetitions

Land Lords

Land Lords was the first series I made after One. It belongs to the wider Repetitions project, but marks a shift away from perception towards questions of ownership, occupation and invasion. The title deliberately carries a double meaning. It refers both to those who own land and to the ways people claim, divide and control the natural world. Throughout the series I became interested in the uneasy relationship between human authority and the landscapes upon which it depends. History reminds us that every territory has been occupied before, every boundary has shifted, and every claim to ownership is ultimately temporary.

Resort was inspired by a visit to Tenerife and a journey to the summit of Mount Teide, the active volcano at the centre of the island. Looking down from the crater I could see the lush landscape stretching towards the coast, where white hotel complexes lined the shoreline. I was struck by the precarious relationship between those resorts and the volcano that dominated the island. The painting recalls the story of Vesuvius and Pompeii, reminding us how fragile human settlement can be when confronted by geological forces beyond our control.

As with many paintings from the Repetitionsseries, I incorporated materials directly associated with each subject. Granite was incorporated directly into the painting, allowing the material of the volcano itself to become part of its surface; pine became part of Sustainable, reinforcing its reflection on managed forests and the ownership of nature as a commodity; and astro-turf was worked into Charge, an artificial landscape that quietly questions ideas of territory, conquest and possession. These materials were never decorative. They became physical intrusions into the painted surface, bringing the represented landscape into direct contact with the substance of the work itself.

Sustainable asks a simple question: what do we mean by nature? We often imagine it as something separate from ourselves, yet much of what we call nature has already been organised, managed and owned. Lakes are engineered, forests become plantations, and landscapes are divided into parcels of private property. The painting reflects on the ways we categorise and domesticate the natural world while continuing to think of it as untouched.

Charge plays with the different meanings of the word. It suggests the cry to attack, the violence of invasion and conquest, but also the annual land charge I paid on my own home—a lingering reminder of systems of land ownership established after the Norman Conquest of 1066. The painting reflects on how conquest continues to echo through modern ideas of property, ownership and entitlement. To the victor go the spoils.

Although each painting begins with a different subject, together they ask the same underlying question: who really owns the land? Landscapes may be occupied, bought, sold and divided, but they ultimately exist beyond the legal and political systems imposed upon them. Human ownership is temporary. The land itself endures.