ALISON McKENNA
VIEWING ROOM
“Landscape painting has a particular poignancy when nature is on the point of collapse, either because of greedy developers, chemical fertilisers, threat of war or climate change - all of which are now interlinked. So while we are in this transition to renewable energy sources and are aiming to reduce carbon pollution, the natural world continues to manifests its beauty and power, and in these paintings I have tried to capture that.”
Common Land Photo Series
Common Land 2021
“A series of photographs taken in April and Dec 2021 on visits to various sites, including Greenham common nature reserve (formally Greenham Common USAF Air Base and the site of a 19 year long peace protest by women against nuclear armaments), and the neolithic monuments of Avebury and Silbury Hill in Wiltshire at the dawn of the Winter Solstice. By decorating the black and white images with inks and colour washes, I aim to reveal the ‘energetics of place’, that in many instances have restricted access (not least to a woman in the possibly hostile environment of open countryside) or have been disrupted by roadways. Greenham Common is in an active phase of healing, but it will take a long time to lift the spirits from the weight of the past.” Alison McKenna, 2022