Spaces are defined by their use, by allocating names such as urban, suburban and rural we are able to recognise and interpret our mental image of the scene. More specific categorisations; a town centre, a car park or an airfield has more vivid connotations.
An area or space often out lives its designated use, buildings are removed new ones are erected what is left is memory and some times trace of what was once there.
As a means of exploring this idea of layered memory and trace I have selected an area for investigation but not for what it was but for what it is now.
When I began this project what I was calling RAF Great Orton I discovered was also the site of the 2001 foot and mouth burial pits. Almost 50 years after the site was decommissioned as an active Air base the area became a burial ground for nearly half a million animals.
The site is now natural environment engineered to not only flourish in the same way a natural habitat would outside of human influence but also as a means of safely managing the waste of the slowly decomposing past
My intention was to create a series of topographical images portraying the layers of trace of human influence around the 200 acre space just out side the town of Great Orton.
