{"id":89884,"date":"2024-07-19T10:27:37","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T09:27:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/?p=89884"},"modified":"2024-11-01T14:07:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T14:07:21","slug":"common-ground","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.modernartoxford.org.uk\/cms\/common-ground\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Ground, Commoning Communities by Sam Skinner"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Common Ground reflects on the themes of Sam Skinner’s film, created as part of Situated Ecologies. <\/em>Explaining the history of the Enclosure Acts, the radical power of common green space, and the ongoing fight to save it, this blog examines how an artistic practice can be rooted in green space. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enclosure<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Between 1604 and 1914, 6.8 million acres of common land in the UK were enclosed through the passing of over 5,200 Enclosure Acts and Awards. One of these is the Cowley Enclosure Award of 1853 that includes the area of what would become Florence Park in East Oxford, which was the focus of my film commission for Modern Art Oxford\u2019s Situated Ecologies<\/em> programme.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Enclosure Award, held in the collection of the Oxfordshire History Centre, takes the form of huge map and ledger marked with seals shown here. It details the removal of commoning rights and the redistribution of land in Cowley to individual owners. Some of these areas were later developed into what became allotments to support those adversely affected by enclosure, including Elder Stubbs Allotments which features in my film<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

I want to draw attention to this history, and the seals found on the Enclosure Award, which I have digitally cut from their legislative substrate, to foreground how greenspace and our ability to access it is made<\/em>, and continually remade. The archetypal vermillion of the seals and the unicorn and lion propping up the royal coat of arms stamped upon them speak of the power and authority to make law and to
enact. Yet, the seals\u2019 cracks and fragmentation suggest a fragility and mutability to this power, to the matter upon which it imprints, which extends to the dividing lines of the map and the land itself.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"A
Image of the \u2018Cowley Enclosure Award 1853\u2019 at the Oxfordshire History Centre, 2024.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Grass Was Taller Than Me<\/a><\/em> focuses in on greenspaces that have in many ways grown out of the cracks of enclosure. My own Fig Studio project itself grew out of these cracks too \u2013 an overgrown corner of Elder Stubbs Allotment and within this blog entry I want to attempt to introduce and situate<\/em> Fig Studio and some of the projects I have been involved with, which will I hope in turn situate the film.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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