These collages are a direct continuation of the initial ‘This Is England’ series. They dwell upon fantasy and speculation with a strong sense of narrative embedded within. After Man has left the surface having consumed every natural resource - what next. Where did we go? Derelict machines litter the countryside; the animals wander free, whilst perhaps we built new lives underground in a post apocalyptic vision of ‘our beautiful land.’ Thoughts of ‘The Time Machine’, ‘War of the Worlds’ and ‘1984’ always prevalent.
This collages, constructed from family photographs, found imagery and even from Ladybird Books are organised in three parts and examines layers in the landscape in a geological context; the surface, the underground and the rock that separates the two - but more so, in three stages of progression; the empty landscape, life beneath the surface and the change in the human form.
Part One sees Man gone; the animals, the broken and old machines and the billboard posters that hint at a ’Nuclear Family’ and a racism and civil hatred.
Part Two speculates in living underground; doing homework, holidaying and family days out in the tunnels and subways whilst Part Three speculates in how the human form may change from living in a cold damp environment with no sun, no warmth and no fresh air.
Whatever 2012 may have in store for us as a species; Metaphorical Disaster, Global Warming or Financial Meltdown, perhaps it would be best to accept that Nature is a most fearsome and unholy beast that inevitably will reclaim what is Her own.
Mark S. Masters - February 2012