The
Exhibition: SSSI Greenham Common consists of
new work created by photographer John Kippin during
a year-long residency on Greenham Common at a significant
turning point in its history - its restoration from
US Airbase to publicly accessible lowland heath. The
exhibition consists of 17 large-scale colour photographs
and a webcam/video installation exploring the traces
of military occupation evident within the site, considered
within a context of conservation, historic, political
and landscape values. The images explore the traces
of military occupation evident within the site whilst
referring to the sustained and successful protests of
the peace women, and reflecting the visible transformation
of the Common from a political island of the US Government
with first strike capability, to a benign plateau on
which to walk the dog. They reveal the essential clues
to the Common's history as it becomes gently colonised
by invaders from the plant and animal kingdoms, providing
an elegeic context within which to contemplate the loss
of innocence of this landscape.
The exhibition was organised by Ruth Charity at Artpoint
in Oxford in conjunction with West Berkshire Council
and The Imperial War Museum in London.
The publication 'Cold War Pastoral' by John Kippin with
essays from Mark Durden, Liz Wells, Sarah Hipperson
and Ed Cooper is published by Black Dog Publications,
London 2001. ISBN
