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Tombland's Rebellion
Acrylic on paper
My work uses Norfolk as vehicle to express my views, observations and feelings on a larger scale. This individual piece featuring Norwich’s incomparable Tombland came to fruition during the controversial Anglia Square consultation which made me consider the largely untouched, medieval and historic city centre in a new way, a globalised, generic, terracotta cladded way. Featuring Columbia Threadneedle’s looming marker tower for the ‘regeneration’ was a way to symbolise the daunting anonymity of a modern city and a shift in priorities from a council and society. Standing next to the tower is the mock cathedral, shadowing the Norman original which peeks over the Erpingham Gate. This I imagined would be constructed in this terminally idealistic world I’m portraying, or if another global company for example, Disney should ever, dare I say, acquire the cathedral. It is a symbol for being raised on Americanised television, movies and culture. Sold a dreamy world full of princesses in towers and princes on steeds, the discontentment with your real experience in the world is almost mandatory, even in somewhere as wonderful as Norfolk! With mention of companies such as these it felt necessary to also highlight some of the corruption and amoral aspects to them. I tried to document the viewpoint of a child and also the viewpoint of myself now in this work and the journey between the two. This is a creation about a realisation of conditioning and a romance of falling back in love with Norfolk even if it isn’t quite what we expected growing up. To trade the dream of a false utopia for an awareness of the beauty of what you have before you is a bargain worth taking.