All This Stuff Is Killing Me – 2018/19

A low-carbon footprint journey around the UK and New Zealand considering the relationships between mass-consumption, personal identity and environmental change. Beginning in June 2018, I shed material possessions and set off by bicycle, taking only what I needed. Along the way I visited a series of Amazon distribution centres, spent a month at sea onboard a cargo ship, and visited sites of personal significance.

Thanks to CS Recycling for supporting this project and installation.

Thanks also to Maria Macc, Caroline Fawcett and Juana Flores Vegas for their motivation and help throughout this project.

Part I

A pilgrimage to Amazon warehouses in the UK. I cycled a total of 2367 miles from 25th June to 29th September 2018, visiting Amazon warehouses at Bristol, Swansea, Tilbury, Hemel Hempstead, Dunstable, Milton Keynes, Daventry, Coventry, Rugby, Peterborough, Coalville, Doncaster, Dunfermline, Gourouck, Bolton, Altrincham and Warrington.

Part II

A journey on board the cargo ship Kerguelen. I sailed from Southampton UK on 14th November arriving in Port Klang Malaysia on the 11th December 2018. The ship passed through the Channel, North Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, Suez Canal, Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Persian Gulf, Laccadive Sea, Bay of Bengal and Malacca Strait.

Part III

A pilgrimage to sites of personal significance and areas of wilderness in and around New Zealand. I cycled a total of 2,607 miles from 23rd December 2018 to 30th April 2019, remembering my Mother and Father, reconnecting with family, exploring and documenting the landscape of both the North and South Island.

Related Exhibitions

Landlines – exhibition at the Royal Geographical Society in London, 4-14th September 2019. The installation comprised a 7ft cubed recycled cardboard shipping container with film (35 minutes); a list of everything I own handwritten in ink on brown paper inherited from my father; purchased and inherited artefacts.

All At Sea – exhibition at Lumen Studios, Saint John on Bethnal Green Church, London, UK, 14-16th June 2019. Artists Hannah Scott and Maria Macc, explore our relationship with the sea through a collaborative, site-specific installation. Two diverse views of working on the sea are brought together, as observed by Hannah on board one of the world’s largest container ships and by Maria experiencing the fishing practices of the Cornish fishermen.

Cosmic Perspectives – exhibition at Ugly Duck, London, UK, 25th – 27th May 2018. The installation included a list of everything I own handwritten in ink on brown paper inherited from my father; a bicycle, camping equipment, tools and spare parts, all-weather clothing, notepad, pen, camera, and a net.