Abby Poulson
Participating in We Live With The Land
Abby works experimentally with alternative photographic processes, installation and sculpture. She uses these processes in a broad sense, to explore ideas surrounding her homeland in Wales, whilst also responding to Welsh identity, heritage, environmental concerns, and the rural landscape.
Abby recently published an ongoing body of work called The Gathering Ground which explores the areas of land in Wales that provide water for England. The Gathering Ground begun as a personal investigation in to studying the rise of independence Wales, and its historical connection to water. Wales has three main water supplies that supply water to across the border. The building of these reservoirs caused damage to society and culture in Wales, as homes and communities were lost to gather water for another nation. Through materiality, process and contemplation, these works focus on the significance of that water, and how the water has affected the land in the past, and how it may affect Wales in the future. The Gathering Ground is extremely process and research led, and gave me confidence to combine various photographic techniques into creating a body of work, using archival material, photographing new images and documenting photographic performances where she combined water from the reservoirs with polaroids to push the image into a new existence - similar to the way the landscapes had been altered by the construction of the reservoirs.
Recently, Abby has been focusing on rural spaces local to home that show evidence of past industrial activity, such as quarries and mines. These sites have now been reclaimed by nature and exist as unusual woodlands. She has been visiting these sites regularly with various camera equipment and art materials to try and invent new ways re-visualising the place, whilst thinking about the environmental impact that exists there, what was extracted from it and how was it used and how it exists now, whilst also interrogating how she can bring the materiality of the space into a photograph. One experiment leads to another, and this body of work is very much ongoing. The environmental impact of this work is very important and is something she is debating as she makes new work. This project interests her because she feel it connects to the sense of playfulness she use in her practice whilst responding to place. Living and working rurally makes it harder to have the opportunity for creative collaboration between other artists, but the Welsh landscape is integral to her practice. These discussions would support her artistic development. She also strongly believes that art has the power to encourage different conversations about the environment, and new spaces for this to happen should be supported.
