Programme

Storey Gallery is no longer running a gallery space or an exhibition programme. We have shifted our focus to concentrate on projects in public spaces. To reflect this change in activity, we will be operating as StoreyG2.

Our current project, Landed (Freeman's Wood), will explore the issue of land-ownership and its significance for people and places. It is centred on a plot of land on the edge of Lancaster, known as Freeman’s Wood, where the interests of the local community have collided with those of global capital.

This site has been used by local people for decades, and they have regarded it as common land, but fencing was installed around it in 2012, resulting in public unrest and reports in the local press.

The land is owned by a property investment company which is registered in Bermuda, and newspaper reports state that its owners are based in Hong Kong. The chairman of the development company acting for them plays polo with Prince Charles and Prince Harry.
So this scrubby semi-derelict patch of land has direct links to global economic, political, and social networks.

Landownership is a hidden area of UK social and economic structure. It is a primary source of money, power, and influence. Most of the land in the UK is owned by a very small number of people.

Over the past several decades, place-making has become a common pursuit of both urban planning and public art. This activity has generally focussed on improvement of design and access. We aim to extend this work by raising awareness of the ownership of land, and its effects on places and on people’s lives.

The project will focus on this particular plot of land as an illustrative example through which the abstract topic of land ownership can be addressed. Storey Gallery / Storey G2 is commissioning artists to lead an investigation of this plot, to research and explore land-ownership and its social effects, and to produce art works which communicate and stimulate thought about these issues.

We will collect local people’s stories of the past, and their wishes for the future. We will seek out people who have used this land - the dog walkers, footballers, cyclists, den-builders, nature watchers, etc. We have already received interest from local residents, artists, and community groups. We also plan to reach a global audience via the internet.

The commissioned artists are : Layla Curtis, Goldin and Senneby, and Sans Facon
These artists will research the site and the issue, and create artworks which may take a wide variety of forms depending on their practice. We also engage some local artists to contribute to the project.

Layla Curtis is a British artist. Extensive travel has informed her work, which explores boundaries, both physical and metaphorical. Her early cartographic work, developed during a residency in Japan, is in the Tate collection. Layla’s investigations into our sense of place utilise digital technologies in trips to the jungle and extreme sports.
http://www.laylacurtis.com/

Simon Goldin and Jakob Senneby are based in Stockholm. They address global finance and the economic issues and injustices of recent years. Their projects create a complex structure in which multiple voices of actors and agents are presented, while the artists choose a position of absence, reflecting the public absence of the wielders, manipulators, and systems, of social and economic power.
http://www.goldinsenneby.com/gs/

Sans Façon is a collaborative art practice between French architect Charles Blanc and British artist Tristan Surtees. They undertake diverse international projects, both temporary and permanent, exploring the complex relationship between people and place. They see the role of the artist as a catalyst in a process of raising questions, and inviting people to look and think differently about a place, hoping to create opportunities rather than objects.
http://www.sansfacon.co.uk/

The artworks produced will probably not be objects for display in a gallery. We want the project to reach a large audience, so we will encourage the artists to produce artworks in forms suitable for distribution on the internet.

Our aim is for this process, and the artworks produced, to raise awareness and discussion of land-ownership and its effect on people’s lives, here and around the world.

The aim of StoreyG2 is to stimulate thought. We believe that the key role of art is to imagine things differently, and to communicate with a wide audience.

Most people know the Woody Guthrie song, This land is your land. You can probably can sing it in your head - or out loud. ....This land was made for you and me

More photos of Freeman's Wood