Sarah Craske & Stacy Keeler

The Womens’ Land Army (new commission for Margate Rocks 08)

A period of research activity, working with local archives, people and the local council, is now underway and will culminate in a site specific performance and installation during Margate Rocks.

Citing the Women’s Land Army during the Dig for Victory campaign, The Law of Freedom in a Platform by Gerard Winstanley in 1652 (who protested against the Enclosures Act) and Margate’s current cultural redevelopment strategy, the work discusses the importance of open space and sustainable living.

Throughout January to April the artists’ studios have been turned into greenhouses, in which hundreds of edible flowers and vegetables have been growing. During the festival the Womens’ Land Army will be transplanting the seedlings in land set aside for development and in locations that were previously open spaces and allotments which were uncovered during their research activity.

Coinciding with this performance the Women’s Land Army will create their Shed Museum within a gallery space. This installation is being designed and built from found objects from around the area and will exhibit the artists’ research on open spaces, allotments, as well as anecdotes from current allotment sites.

About the Artists

The Women’s Land Army is the first collaborative project from artists Sarah Craske and Stacy Keeler. This has evolved from a discourse in common interests such as structured patterns found within the natural world through to representations of truth within a science and museum context. Their research around these issues led to an interest in an activist approach to the ‘truth’ found in archive material relating to natural space and man’s impact on that at a local and social level.

When working solitarily both artists are multi-disciplinary. Craske is creating works in response to museology and representation within that context, whilst Keeler is currently exploring patterns of human behaviour, specifically as a result of an encountered situation or environment and the relationships between artwork and viewer.

_{Sarah Craske & Stacy Keeler, The Women’s Land Army, 2008. Photography © Simon Welsford}