on tenter hooks
(2025)
exhibition at tower house, winkle street, southampton, uk
installation: reclaimed wooden beams, rusted steel, 17th century birthing stool, hand spun wool, steel pins, reclaimed oak floorboards, blackthorns
'on tenter hooks' was created within the realm of my ongoing project 'in pursuit of presence', conducted as part of my postgraduate degree in contemporary art and archaeology. the work symbolically and more directly explores narratives of institutionalisation, enclosure and oppression from an ecological and feminist perspective. key texts which informed them work include carolyn merchant’s ‘the death of nature’, tim ingold’s ‘the perception of the environment’, and thomas hübl’s ‘healing collective trauma’, amongst others, has created a framework for narratives of ecological, feminist and trauma theory to intersect.
within the work, two key questions are explored: what are the materials of forgotten histories / oppression / intergenerational narratives, and what are the connections between the wounds of the earth and the wounds of the oppressed - can they be reclaimed and offered space for healing? these investigations are ongoing and play an intrinsic part in my developing body of work.
exhibition text:
from the 1600s to early 1900s, enclosure of common land in england began to spread rapidly - species and wildlife cleared, fences and barricades staked into the earth.
by the 1750s, enclosure of common land by law became the widespread norm, the repercussions of which are firmly felt today. whilst many of our non-human relatives remain restricted in barbed wire pens, we are excluded from 92% of our once common land and water systems.
simultaneously as the land and its inhabitants were being rapidly forced out and restricted, institutions for the purpose of incarcerating thousands of pregnant women and girls began to operate across the country. between 1758 and 1985, women and girls as young as 12 were sent to institutions known as ‘mother and baby homes’ to give birth to children conceived illegitimately, under the auspices of ‘protection from stigma and destitution’.
a nationally kept secret, remnants of these acts of restriction and entrapment present a stark and brutal truth of oppression and intergenerational shame. 'on tenter hooks' reflects upon and mourns this reality, acknowledged as a step towards collective healing.
