100 Cauliflowers

It all began with a project

It all began with a project brief for “Peninsula” a project initiated by Independent Photography
www.independentphotography.org.uk

“Peninsula” is a two-year programme of artists’ commissions on the Greenwich Peninsula. The area has seen much change and is due to undergo further dramatic development in the next few years. “Peninsula” aims to engage the diverse and separated local communities of the peninsula, some old and some emerging, in investigating the area and the significance of the changes. The commissions will bring together local people to explore new territories, cross boundaries and make new links and connections that can be sustained in the future.
The focus for the programme is exploring change and identity of the environment and its inhabitants. These explorations are being made through a range of contemporary artist’s commissions engaging with approaches to participative collaboration, public art, mapping, psycho geography, intervention, community information and digital technologies. Programme documentation can be seen via
http://www.peninsulaprojects.net

And the brief I responded to was

“Environment”
This commission is for a project to engage a cross section of residents of the Greenwich Peninsula Ward in investigating their environment. The project should enable enquiry, activism, and raise awareness of environmental issues, including:
- The enhancement, management and sustainable development of the local environment.
- People friendly development, (issues around environmental care, recycling, public space & sustainable lifestyles)
The project should seek to bring people together, generate ideas, environmental research, recordings and responses using mixed and new media, and begin to deliver messages about changes wanted in the area.
IP is keen to engage a variety of participants across the community, including young people, elderly and families and would ask applicants to consider approaches to this, possibly through a variety of activities / events.

Artist profile.
IP seeks an artist / animateur / creative activist who is developing unique and engaging approaches to urban and environmental investigation and collaboration. Experience of engaging with diverse communities is required, with an enthusiasm for working closely with residents to explore and communicate environmental issues in creative and original ways. A track record of working participatively with technology is desirable, but the focus should be on collaborating with local residents and enabling meaningful participation.

I was the lucky applicant – and was appointed the residence

It’s a case of the outsider being parachuted into a community to deliver work for, and about, the community and place. Not uncommon, and certainly with it’s advantages. Any in-comer sees a place free from the restrictions of familiarity – in other words, you see a place afresh, for the first time, through ‘new’ eyes, unfamiliar with the comings and goings of everyday life, and the local politics.
The major disadvantages are the reverse –you don’t know the place, the people, or the politics
So
You need to get to know,
and in this case,
for this residence,
quickly…
I had 20 days to research, engage, and deliver…

I began my research many miles away from Peninsula – sat in my studio just outside Manchester
I began by reading URL after URL, links that helped me understand the history of the peninsula, its recent development, ecology – past, present, and future, local politics, and the opinions of local bloggers

http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk

http://www.greenwichpeninsula.co.uk/home.htm

http://comunities.gov.uk/index.asp?id=1509513

http://www.meridiandeltaltd.com

http://www.intelligentspace.com/projects/09992.htm

http://www.urbanecology.org.uk/gpep.html>

http://www.forumatgreenwich.co.uk/

http://fegp.typepad.com/

http://www.lgfl.net/lgfl/leas/greenwich/accounts/subjects/ictteam/Resources/QCA%20Lesson%20Plans/6d%20Using%20the%20internet/Support%20Files/History%20of%20Greenwich.pdf

http://www.ideal-homes.org.uk/greenwich/main/greenwich-peninsula.htm

http://www.gold.ac.uk/world/millen/peninsula.html

http://society.guardian.co.uk/regeneration/story/0,7940,515827,00.html

http://www.casino-avenue.co.uk/2004/08/yuppie-village-picture-special-i-keep.html

http://www.gold.ac.uk/world/millen/>

http://lastbushome.typepad.com

http://www.gmvonline.com/GMVCW/index.php?section=greenIss&M=0

http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/YourEnvironment/

http://www.greenwich.gov.uk/Greenwich/YourEnvironment/Pollution/AirQuality/AirQuality.htm

www.ecologyconsultancy.co.uk/housing.htm

I began to refine my research area and started checking out stuff that was of a deeper interest to me – specifically the remediation of the Peninsula (removing land contaminated by the gas work industry, and replacing it with non contaminated soil) and here in lies a whole other line of investigation – phytoremediation, biomonitoring, restoration ecology, and Brownfield development; areas of investigation that I am researching for other projects – but lines of inquiry that that turned out to be not wholly suited to this residence.

The URLs were naturally followed by downloading pdf’s
Some were direct links from the web pages I had been reading through, and others I came across as I digressed – wandering around the virtual maze of the internet world – subjects including land remediation, wild adventure, green space, open space, brownfield space, biodiversity, and ecology parks, spring to mind…
Which in turn led to reading relevant books and journals
And all done to build a deeper understanding of how the Peninsula has developed or could be developed further…

IP emailed through a list of people they thought I should contact – so I did.

So as not to feel totally goggle box bound (“square eyes square head” my mum used to say about my after school TV watching – if only she knew just how many hours I spend in front of a screen these days!) I also made some phone calls.
One lady in particular was a great inspiration, Barbara Ludlow, a local historian and writer who, before retiring and moving to the Kent coast, used to work in the Greenwich Heritage Centre. Incidentally, she has written a great deal about the area – and continues to do so – on a typewriter – as she puts it – as someone approaching 80 I don’t want to be staring at a computer screen all day!
As someone half her age – I don’t want to be either…!

The other thing I did before I headed cross-country on a Virgin Pendolino was to check out past Peninsula Programme projects

I was particularly interested in
‘Accidental Holiday’ by Lottie Child,
What she did bore many resemblances to what I had proposed in my application
http://malinky.org/wikka.php?wakka=AccidentalHoliday

I mention all this not because I want you to think – oohh how rigorous  – although a thought in that direction is obviously appreciated – but because if you have read this far, I am hoping you have an interest in the Peninsula, and rather that spend time clogging up pages with texts that others have written, it’s far easier for me to drop in the links, in the hope that you will click onto them and begin to build up your own overview of the place, it’s history, and re-development

But going back to being the outsider ‘parachuted’ in
I don’t like going somewhere
To create work in response to people and place
Without having a bit of background info
So before I ever put a foot on the Peninsula or met a single local, I felt the need to do a bit of homework; to learn a little about the Peninsula – processes of change over time.

I was still unfamiliar with the comings and goings of everyday life, and the local politics.
And I had no idea of the spatial dynamics of the Peninsula – the tactile, felt, seen, and experienced. That was still to come.

Themes

Before the gas works were built, a large area of the Peninsula was a market farm.
From the 1840s to 1870s, the Roberts family farmed the land selling their produce directly to Covent Garden Market traders. Mary Roberts kept a farm journal and diary in which she records a cauliflower incident in April 1848 – 100′s of cauliflowers were harvested early in the morning, and stacked awaiting transport to Covent Garden. Left unattended they were stolen by a gang of cauliflower rustlers!
When market farming on the peninsula ceased, and the gas works moved in, acre upon acre of the peninsula east of the A102 was made into allotments sites allocated to residents of East Greenwich ward and workers at the Gasworks. Sadly none remain today, and ironically supermarkets have been built in the vicinity of the old allotment sites.
If you want an allotment site in Greenwich today you could be in for a long wait – one gentleman has been on a waiting list now for 10 year- but according to the council the waiting list for a site at Maze Hill is less.

100 Cauliflowers is a project that questions
“Should we look to the past for a sustainable future?”

There is increasing concern about the carbon footprint of food miles – and a marked decrease in space for people to “grow your own”Local residents have planted 100 cauliflower seeds.

Research Summary

During the summer Kerry has explored the Peninsula environment and ecology and worked closely with Staff at The Ecology Park. She’s talked to residents, collected local information and plant samples, and uncovered some of the areas agricultural history.Here work has thrown up numerous issues that people are interested in and/or concerned about.

Kerry acknowledges that “The entire landscape on the Greenwich Peninsula east of the A102 has been recreated and the landscaped green spaces have been created by bringing flora into the area. When the contaminated land was remediated and the building development planning application was accepted, a tiny portion of the Greenwich peninsula was made into an ecology park but most of the green space consists of large grassed areas, monocultures of ivy and lavender, and architecturally positioned trees.

It would be fare to say that there has been some thought given to the ecology of the peninsula – but not necessary a holistic vision that promotes and nurtures wildlife and habitat cohesion.

As soon as you leave the vicinity of the ecology park there is a noticeable audible difference in the gardened landscape – the designed open green space has not been created to attract or nurture wildlife, as a result, bird activity decreases dramatically and songs are replaced with the hum of traffic traveling through on the A102.

But at present, the peninsula wildlife is not wholly concentrated in the ecology park. The vacant plots awaiting development also support a host of wildlife.

The peninsula has a rich biodiverse habitat, a history of market farming on a huge scale, and a history of allotment gardening. Looking at past agri/culture activity, current wildlife activity, and future wildlife potential, I hope to encourage residents to embrace these aspects of their environment, past, present, and future, through practical and creative activities.”