Projects Archive

PROSPECT I, II, III and IV

A site specific installation by Amanda Hopkins
From mid November 2004 through March 2005

This work was commissioned by Landscape+Arts Network Services, for Gunpowder Park, and produced with the help of the Lee Valley Rangers .

'A prospect can be something as grand as a panorama, or as intimate as personal perspective. Prospect I, II, III and IV captures the micro aspects of Gunpowder Park’s 4 bio regions: Shock Wave Galleries, Blast Mound Plateau, The Energy Fields and The Salix and tracks the changes in these environments over 3 months.'

Three sets of glass slides were left in Gunpowder Park's 4 bioregions, and ‘accidental’ collections were photographed and displayed at 4 different viewpoint locations. Over three months visitors saw new images celebrating those aspects of our environment which often pass by unnoticed. Viewing these images of micro-scale suspended against the vast landscapes, offered the viewer an opportunity to travel between both interpretations and engage with their environment.

Text by Amanda Hopkins

The Concept
Our memory of places can often let us down. When we visit one location it’s easy to forget what it was like a month before. We often even lose the ability to compare one part of the park with another we walked through half an hour before.

My work is concerned with reconnecting us with particular places around us by making what is currently invisible, visible; by heightening our sensitivity to the everyday (Knotted Gate 1996); and by developing our relationship with places through making unexpected visual and conceptual links with the physical and social nature of the site (Davy Downe 2000).

My original studies in psychology has always informed my fundamental art practice; I am especially interested in the process of things. And I like the idea of working with chance. Things fabricated by human hands can be predictable and as an artist, it is important for me to be surprised by my work.

The idea of recording what I call ‘environmentals’ on a micro scale came to me whilst looking at St Pancras station in the process of being cleaned. I noticed how the soot and car fumes had gradually built up over time --almost without being noticed. I thought about how much else is wafting around in our atmosphere and falling down from the sky (whether that sky be 20 meters or 20centimeters above ground). The land continually being raised up is a phenomena that we don’t notice in our own lifetime, but which is very apparent to archaeologists who observe the strata built up over millennia. I became very interested in the things that fall in a particular place over a particular time frame. How this might differ from what might fall in the place say, one year later. How each has its own ‘fingerprint’.

It seemed an ideal opportunity to employ a method to make visible the less obvious, and to highlight the micro aspects of the 4 bio regions in the park. And, even more importantly, to track changes in these environments over time, beginning in Autumn 2004.

Hence Prospect I, II, III and IV are each sited in a different bio region of the park. The ‘accidental’ collections made in each region, photographed and displayed in situ, offer visitors a different viewpoint and celebrate those aspects of our environment which often pass by unnoticed.

The Process
To do this, I laid sticky glass slides along the route, capturing whatever environmental ‘debris’ adhered to the slide became a signature of that time and place. I didn’t know what I will find until I go and pick up the slides. Inevitably there is an element of risk attached to this. Perhaps there will be nothing, which is interesting conceptually but not visually. It takes courage to fight against controlling outcome in such a strongly visual culture , but I also knew that I wanted to capture clues to the landscape and allowed for several slides per bio-region. Uncannily, I find that nature’s random compositions have a certain beguiling quality that I could never reproduce myself.

These images are captured with digital photography and then enlarged. Held within perspex, framed by steel, these images are displayed upon steel uprights. A simple vertical line intersects the vistas at four points throughout the park. From mid-November 2004 through mid-January, a new image reflecting the previous month’s capturing will join the steel uprights reflecting the micro changes of the landscape, and thus challenging our viewpoints.

Amanda Hopkins, Biography
I am a practising artist with 10 years experience working both as a consultant and to commission.

Throughout, my work seeks to make a genuine connection with the contemporary nature of a site, rather than simply rehashing consumable heritage.

I also act as a consultant for new/remodelled public buildings, especially schools - exploring ways in which art & design can ”earth” the new buildings.

Alongside my practice I am senior lecturer on the multidisciplinary BA Arts, Design and Environment at Central Saint Martins, part of the University of the Arts, London. I also co-develop and run seminars/courses on art, design and creativity.

Prospect I, II, III and IV October 2004
The first set of slides were collected on September 27th 2004 and the images displayed in the Park is the preservation of the captured moment.

Prospect I. Shock Wave Galleries: Guelder Rose, Viburnum opulus, Snail
The Guelder Rose is a newly-planted hedgerow that runs perpendicular to the path, cutting an axis from the urban and industrial northern end of the park through to the rural farm land of the Energy Fields. Ranging from amenity grassland to fine and medium grasslands with flowers to tussocky flower rich swards, the variation in structure within the grassland sward c is reflecting by this native plant that begins with a spring white flower and then in autumn produces bright red berries to attract birds as a food source which they in turn spread the seeds.

The leaves turn red/purple ‘maple-like’ drawing a dramatic red line across the turning landscape. As a part of the bank of reclaimed land on which it sits, this plant’s fiery colour echoes the park’s violent past as a fitting part of the Shock Wave Galleries.

Prospect II. Energy Fields: Salix Viminalis [willows] leaves, Quinoa [cereal grain], Thistlehead, possibly ‘Goatsbeard’
The energy fields are arable farmlands forming part of the Countryside Stewardship Scheme which focuses upon enhancing the wildlife and landscape value by means of harvesting to provide a more diverse range of habitats. Two examples of grain captured here are the quinoa, a cereal grain planted last year and the thistleheads. This strip of sacrificial farmland will be beneficial to grain eating and farmland birds such as reed bunting, linnet, yellow hammer and song thrush, all recognised as declining species within the agricultural landscape. However, the leaf has travelled from the outer parameter of the Salix via means of wind, bird, animal or visitor reminding us that map delineations should not restrict our investigation into specific habitats.

Prospect III. The Salix: Salix Caprea Willow leaves
These willow leaves of the Osier Marsh reflect the density of this unusual wet willow woodland and dry birch woodland which is naturally regenerating on the old gravel pits. The woodland is estimated to be 25-30 years old dominated by crack willow (Salix fragilis), goat willow (Salix caprea), white willow (Salix alba) silver birch (Betula pendula) and elder (Sambucus nigra). There is a good supply of dead wood, both standing and lying and is important to a number of invertebrate species, including several nationally notable species such as the solitary bees Lasioglossum malachurum and L. pauxillum, both of which are regionally important.

Prospect IV. Blast Mound Plateau: White clover head, Stalk of white mellilot, Wing of invertebrate
The fine grassland mix was intended to create a downland/parkland character and was applied to the slopes of the capped area. The flower rich grassland (unaffected by the restoration process) and floodplain grassland are characterised by a wide range of flowering plants and these areas are important for a range of invertebrate species and provide feeding opportunities for passerine bird species in the winter. Set against the skyline of this wild flowered grass lie the electrical pylons.