Jennet Thomas transports C. James Fagan back to the Thatcher years: a time of nuclear scares, managed decline and milk snatching…

Thatcher! Thatcher! Milk snatcher!

This chant has resonance with me, as Margaret Thatcher’s infamous decision to withdraw free milk from nursery schools, taken while Minister for Education in 1971, coincided with my time in nursery (although I do remember getting milk to drink). Since then, Thatcher has occupied a part of mine and many others’ lives as a narrative permeating British culture; usually portrayed as a  presence that borders on the supernatural, helped in part by various depictions of her as demon or a robot.

Like Raymond Briggs’ drawings of her in The Tin Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman, or that Spitting Image sketch where she turns out to be a Xenomorph for the Alien films. When she stepped down as Prime Minister in the 1990s while I was at high school, my Maths teacher cheerfully announced: “Thatcher’s Gone!” The class cheered as if a dragon had been slain or the Death Star had been destroyed.

It is, of course, a one-sided narrative; one that came from people who opposed the materialistic, capitalistic rhetoric she espoused. Obviously people agreed with her, or sided with the idea of what she was saying; it happens I don’t count myself as one of those people.

Thatcher happens to be on my mind as I’m heading towards a screening of Jennet Thomas’ The Unspeakable Freedom Device at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, hosted by The Exhibition Centre for the Life and Use of Books, Manchester. I’m not entirely sure what role, if any, that Thatcher plays in the film: expectations of Thatcher is based on the appearance of a look-a-like in some publicity stills.

During a brief presentation by Thomas herself, the artist explains that the flashpoint for the making of this film was Thatcher’s death and funeral. These events served to stimulate the feelings that Thomas had during the 1980s, describing what unfolded as a ‘Thatcher aesthetic’.

When The Unspeakable Freedom Device film starts, it becomes clear what that aesthetic is. Visually, it could be likened to Derek Jarman’s Jubilee (1978) or within the more satirical aspects of 2000AD strips (Nemesis the Warlock Vol. 9 springs to mind). Even in the first edgier stories of Doctor Who, for example The Sunmakers (1977).

It is in Thomas’ primitive-futuristic costumes, which echo the fear of the return of barbarism as an result of a nuclear war. It is in the discarded buildings of the sixties and seventies that form the remains of a world left to managed decline. It is in the landscape of a pleasant and green land that bears the scars of its history.

In this landscape travel two people: one a young mother on a pilgrimage for the fabled ‘Blue Lady’ (Thatcher); the other an older women who carry’s a weary wisdom regarding the young mother’s claims of the messianic qualities of this Blue Lady. These characters are helped, hindered or manipulated by creatures of Red, Blue and Green, who themselves are the echoes of past political ideals. It’s a classic sci-fi trope where the beliefs or notions of the now attain a mythical status.

As the film approaches a kind of climax at Blackpool’s Winter Gardens — which Thomas regards as the ‘origin of Thatcher’ — the two central characters join a Thatcher cult where the individuals dress like her regardless of gender. They applaud the platitudes of a Blue Man, who speaks in soundbites and jingles. Pretty much like many politicians do, leaving us to choose leaders on the basis of ‘I like the sound of that’.

This finale seems to point towards the idea of a fallacy of party politics, especially when many politicians main aim is to get into power. That most political rhetoric deals with the manipulation of symbols, the devolving of complex issues into the battleground of us and them, and the delivering of empty promises. It even expands into the narratives that the Tories are evil.

During the climax, there are moments where Red and Green forcibly join with Blue to create a possible utopian power elite. Think of the conclusion of Jim Henson’s Dark Crystal (1982). It’s strange to reflect that an exhibition of this film and of Thomas’ work was postponed by Conservative members of Blackpool council because of perceived political basis.

The film comes to a cyclical ending. There’s a break and Part Two starts.

Composer Leo Chadburn (aka Simon Bookish) steps up, having supplied the soundtrack for The Unspeakable Freedom Device. Though he’s not here to simply recreate the music we’ve just heard, rather he presents a separate yet thematically connected work entitled Red & Blue.

Red & Blue, Chadburn informs us, was inspired by his boyhood memories of seeing images of Thatcher and Ronald Reagan on the TV. He infuses these memories with transcripts of conversations between Maggie and Ronald. The 17 minutes of Chadburn’s piece unfolds like a ballad, exploring their so-called ‘special relationship’; declarations of affection wrapped around terrifying statistics regarding ICBM deployment.

Again, here is the ‘Thatcher aesthetic’: the way the ideals of that age affected the creative output of generations. It also expands into Chadburn’s other work; after Red & Blue he performs songs based on dreams of transportation. I say it expands; what I mean is that there’s something in the music that makes recall, and this may be damming with faint praise. It recalls that part of the ’80s where performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson could be Number Two in the charts alongside stuff like this.

As the last sounds fade and I ready to leave, I begin to think about the night as a whole. I begin to consider that both sections of the night were about memory and experience. Both Thomas and Chadburn have memories of a time which, when reproduced, leave a nagging, unavoidable sense that the problems of that time still remain unresolved.

C. James Fagan

Read more coverage on Thomas’ The Unspeakable Freedom Device here

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Monday — Mistress America (2015) 2.30/4.30.6.30/8.30pm @ FACT Liverpool — £10/9

Tipped as star Greta Gerwig’s best film yet — and moving Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw to coin the term ‘mumblecore screwball’ — this brand new New York comedy comes co-written by Gerwig and director Noah Baumbach. Revolving around 30-something Brooke (Gerwig) making friends with soon-to-be younger stepsister and novice writer Tracy (Lola Kirke). Impressed by Brooke’s seemingly successful creative career and girl-about-town lifestyle, she submits a scathing short story about her to her college literary society, resulting in a set of very awkward — and funny — circumstances.

Wednesday — Slim Jim Phantom Of The Stray Cats 7pm @ O2 Academy, Liverpool — £19.12 + Booking Fees

Rockabilly New Yorker and Stray Cats’ drummer Slim Jim Phantom comes to Liverpool tonight to play his own brand of rock ‘n’ roll. Known for storming Thursday nights with celebrity guests at his Cat Club on Sunset Strip — with ‘Head Cat’ Lemmy from Motorhead — plus forming the Forgotten Saints with longtime friend Captain Sensible of The Damned (which invites a different guest for each gig), expect to hear classic tracks Runaway Boys, Rock This Town and Stray Cut Strut as well as some new numbers. Dare you not to dance. Listen here…

Thursday – Exhibition Opens: Rosika Desnoyers: The Creative Industry of Mary Linwood 1-6pm @ ACME Project Space, London – FREE

Presenting a unique collection of new embroidery, made over a six-month studio residency as the Canada Council for the Arts London Artist Resident, here Desnoyers offers a peek into her research of the needlepoint of the late eighteen-century practitioner Mary Linwood. Having worked in several national museums in Canada and the United States, and as author of the forthcoming Berlin Work, Genealogy, Needlepainting: A History of Errors, expect incredibly detailed and knowledgeable, traditional craft with a twist.

Izem 8pm @ The Kazimier Garden, Liverpool — £2 OTD

Best described we think as an alternative Stereolab, French ambient/electro artist Izem visits the Kazimier Gardens tonight courtesy of everisland. Recently championed by Gilles Peterson on BBC 6 Music — specifically his remix of Jose James – expect tropical beats from debut album Hafa.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Friday — Talk: Josh Kline & Amy Sherlock 6-7pm @ Modern Art Oxford — FREE

An ‘in conversation’ via Frieze editor Amy Sherlock in celebration of his first ever solo show Freedom (also opening tonight alongside Kiki Kogelnik’s Fly Me to the Moon), Kline discusses the themes and ideas that inform his strange and dystopian work, from media manipulation to 3D printing. Featuring four giant Teletubbies dressed in SWAT gear, guarding New York’s Occupy Wall Street camp, and a Barack Obama augmented with facial substitution software, expect a alternative take on political critique.

Saturday –  Last Day: Jennet Thomas, THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE 10am-5pm @ Grundy Gallery, Blackpool — FREE

A must-see exhibition that has seen its fair share of controversy, Jennet Thomas presents a warped sci-fi folk-tale around a fictitious polital conference, with a good dollop of Margaret Thatcher, British satire, and madcap performance. An artist who has ‘traditionally adopted intelligent forms of reinterpreting some of the worst aspects of political and cultural extremities’ according to our reviewer Deb Laing, expect a fantastic installation that provokes thought about how we vote and how we choose.

Independent Liverpool: The Festival 12pm-12am 6pm (Until Sunday) @ Secret Location, Baltic Triangle, Liverpool — £9.50 + Booking Fee Per Day

Showcasing a selection of small, local businesses by transforming a brand new event space in the heart of the Baltic Triangle into an all day and night urban market, expect the best food, drink, art & craft, print and produce the city has to offer — including a pop-up gin garden, craft beer bar, whisky den, and live DJs.

Annual Open Weekend 12-6pm (Until Sunday) @ Wysing Arts Centre, Cambridge – FREE

Exhibitions, events and performances from one of our favourite national art spaces, Wysing’s Open Weekend returns, featuring a peek into the studios of artists Alexandra Drysdale, Bettina Furnée, Alison Gibb, Naomi Harwin, and more. A great chance to enjoy this and the public sculpture, walks, picnic areas and pop-up a café of the centre’s 11 acre location, plus the closing exhibition from Leverhulme Arts Scholars Summer School in the gallery.

Sunday — Last day: OPEN 1 10.30-5.30pm @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – FREE

As a result of Open Eye’s ongoing call for exhibition submissions and (satisfyingly) coinciding with this year’s LOOK/15, Open 1 is the first of three annual showcases of six selected artists, whose works take on the theme of social portraiture. In a bid to highlight collective and often political issues through the telling of individual stories, expect thought-provoking tales of imprisonment, protest, religion and self-expression.

Laura Robertson (Editor)

Keen to hear about the best art, design, film and music events happening in Liverpool July-Sept 2015?

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Artistic coalitions and satirical encounters: Deb Laing finds that artist Jennet Thomas cuts a fine political line at the Grundy Art Gallery, and all the better for it…

A Margaret Thatcher impersonator, acting as a Greek singular chorus, providing interludes as two central female characters and a cardboard box baby embark on a quest to find the perfect device? This is Jennet Thomas’ satirical experimental and multi-media film installation THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE, a controversial commission that has faced opposition and an eventual one-year delay by Blackpool’s local council, steering it away from last year’s General Election, under concerns that a publicly-funded gallery shouldn’t be seen to be taking political sides. However, as I found, the illusion of Thatcher is a reflective one rather than a direct attack.

British satire, from which Thomas sources her work, has traditionally adopted intelligent forms of reinterpreting some of the worst aspects of political and cultural extremities. Her art could be said to have an advantage by its ambiguity and its ability to play with meaning without institutional hang-ups.

Visually, Thomas’s installations are reminiscent of Peter Greenway‘s 1980s set designs (amongst others). The chessboard imagery and solid-colour pyramids that dominate the gallery suggesting an abstract game of geometrical and figurative forms, only to be confronted with morphological set pieces. Thomas’s film, placed high on the gallery wall, is narrated in two time zones: one being reminiscent of mediaeval England, the other being a post-industrial landscape. Thomas adopts a loose pilgrimage fable to evoke what are essentially contemporary messages without definitive answers.

Visually colour-coded red, green and blue visual motifs, communicated through RGB LED display, metaphorically provide a movable feast for the eyes and assured recognition of computer technology. Thomas’s vibrant and malleable objects float across the screen, and the act of eating — or the ‘feed’ as it’s mediated — is symbolic both of a communication device and one which can re-nourish or replenish the human condition.

Thomas’s ability to provide paradoxes comes from her use of binary oppositions, through technical irony that is both facilitating and disabling. In addition, monetary exchange between characters are constructed through the ancient use of bartering, coloured stones that change colour, transform and dissolve; giving the work a sci-fi sensibility. In contrast, the two protagonists — one of whom is called Mary, whose religious significance turns to the ‘Blu’ party in ‘Blupool’ – experience a nomadic existence, the effective juxtaposition of uninhabited rural settings and dystopian mise-en-scene, that are fitting for the philosophical extremities in the film. Both Orwellian and Beckett-like in places, the characters are watched through a device from which Thomas explores the passing of political mediocrity.

In this Grundy commission, Thomas both attacks and reinforces societal beliefs: the Iron Lady status, for example, is reinforced in the film through the use of real sound bites as a form of direct address; famously: “The Lady’s not for Turning”. Similarly, it was originally used by Soviet and then British journalists to reinforce Thatcher’s negative press. In a sharp marketing move, the name Iron Lady was later used as positive branding by Thatcher herself. And so a moniker was born.

By playing on the Thatcher myth, the blue doll caricature used as a prop and narrative ‘gift’ in the film implies a further reading; that of a magical doll possessing healing powers, that of instant gratification. These powers are latterly seen as problematic, and towards the end of the film they remind us of the political ramifications of needing to work and, suggestively, the draconian measures that a present-day government make on those that do not.

Thomas’s film is set partly in Blackpool’s famous Winter Gardens, the building that accommodated the Conservative Party Conference during the 1980s, and from which Thatcher delivered some of her most famous speeches. (Dressed in blue and white-striped headscarves, there is possibly an additional art historic reference here — to artist Daniel Buren who campaigned for art in public places in 1968 in protest against the commercial art world. With horizontal stripes on fabric, Buren’s aim originally was to block the entrance to the Apollinaire Gallery in Milan.)

The Winter Gardens scene symbolically reinvents the death of socialism: a double schism both historical and personal between the two central characters. One is ‘upgraded’; the other not. It may be suggested that Thomas’s film exposes the failings of all parties and policies that adopt a neo-liberalist ideology: one that believes in monetarism and individual ownership of material possessions as a religion. THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE in her film is the opium of the masses: the next new, desirable, must-have materialistic object being sold through persuasive discourse.

By continuing the historical trend of producing uncertainty, Thomas’s artwork signals a fractured interpretation, applying rhetorical devices that read as metaphorical jargon or advertising-speak. Written text on screen demands the two characters to TRANSLATE YOUR NATURAL ASSETS INTO CASH. The words ‘value’ and ‘hands’ being repeated throughout, the red figure awash with hands whilst the blue figure poses as a game show host or zealous preacher.

Multi-faceted messages are in abundance, so why local councillors postponed the film’s release until post-election seems bizarre. Not unlike playing a surreal game of Hunger Games, Jennet Thomas’s work has become politicised, unaware of the control local politics have on art where CONTROL hovers over the subordinate. The illusion of the Blue Lady is a reflective one rather than a direct attack on Conservative Party politics.

That being said, maybe we all need to cross the political line now that Thomas has provided a fitting allegory for those who demonise for political gain.

Deb Laing

See Jennet Thomas, THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE, until 22 August 2015 at the Grundy Gallery, Blackpool — free entry

Open Monday to Saturday 10am to 5pm and bank holidays 11-4pm. Closed Sundays

See more from the artist’s website

Deborah Laing looks forward to the Grundy’s new and provocative exhibition – a space for satirical encounters, discussion and performance…

Experimental film and installation artist Jennet Thomas joins writers, critics, art historians, theorists and the public this weekend to enjoy her most recent experimental work: mixed media, film installation and imminent book, THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE.

Thomas’s work deals predominantly with ideological belief systems and the language adopted by those in power. By creating fictional worlds through satirical narrative strands and recognizable storytelling, her work is both accessible and surreal. For example, she disembarks into other historical dimensions, playing fictional homage to Victorian utopian fiction. Increasingly, she explores an often-invigorating discourse of ideal existence, and asks the question: What if? Only to turning any ideas you may have into absurdity with comic effect.

Initially treading the boards on London’s underground live art scene in the 1990s, Thomas adopts a sci-fi aesthetic not unlike the movies of the ’60s. Known for her use of exaggerated colour and over-zealous costume and props, previous titles of her unique style of experimental film include I Am Your Error Message (2013) and School of Change (2012), featured in solo exhibitions in Europe, Toronto and New York.

Her collaborative work led her to co- found The Exploding Cinema Collective: an underground movement of artists and filmmakers implementing successful events held in disused warehouses whilst bands, performance, hybrid film and imagery encompassed the building.

Symbolically, Thomas applies vivid colours to awaken audience’s senses and to represent coded characters caricatures; like the Purple Preacher and Yellow Schoolgirl (2010). Her most recent work features a blue Margret Thatcher: ironically the film references are of Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, just down the road from the Grundy Gallery.

Hosting a public symposium in the space on Saturday, visitors can expect a live musical score from her original film composer Leo Chadburn, and discussions fuelled around themes such as art’s role in cultural memory, ideas of truth and the use of fantasy and the everyday. Key to the debate is Guardian cartoonist Martin Rowson, cited as a major influence on Thomas’s work.

The Thatcher era will no doubt feature heavily: Rowson’s cartoon depictions of of the former Prime Minister’s power and her hold on the British public are legendary. Memory recalls her funeral in 2013 being drawn by Rowson as tribal, led by savages and sycophants.

Further discussions will include how Thatcher’s long-term mythical status will play a part in Thomas’s current artwork and its possible reception. Satirical material is promised in abundance, both verbally and visual, as a Thatcher clone on Vimeo clips (now available on Thomas’s website) retorts: “I can’t bear Britain in decline”. This writer heard that the show is even being contested by local (Tory?) politicians!

On entering the  four galleries and discussion space, her work, I expect, will be bizarre and distort the rationality of the era depending on your age and historical knowledge. Either way, the day’s events are set to capture everyone’s attention and provide both a real and fictional world that all can enter.

Deborah Laing

Jennet Thomas, THE UNSPEAKABLE FREEDOM DEVICE, opens this Friday 3 July 2015, 6-9pm at the Grundy Gallery, Blackpool. See it until 22 August 2015

See the public symposium the following day — 10am-5pm, 4 July — with the artist and friends: more info and tickets here

See more from the artist’s website

What’s hot this week? Our pick of the listings from around Liverpool and the rest of the UK…

Monday – Japanese Bookbinding Workshop 11am @ Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool – £10 (Booking Essential)

Why buy a book when you can make your own? To coincide with Metamorphosis of Japan After the War Exhibition, let artist and designer Sophie Powell guide you through the beautiful and delicate craft of bookbinding. Easing us in with a simple journal design before building up to more complex stich patterns, expect to make two journals that will provide the motivation and know-how needed to start you off on your own photo journal career.

Tuesday – Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter 6pm @ FACT, Liverpool – £10

The morbidity of obsession has never been more captivating in the Zellner brothers’ ‘Thoroughly oddball’ (The Telegraph) road trip film with a twist. We follow the story of a Japanese business woman – Kumiko – whose discovery of a VHS tape of the Coen brothers’ Fargo leads her on a quest across America in search of a lost (and utterly fictional) fortune. Convinced of her destined treasure, we observe a heart-warming and haunting tale of determination and watch as reality and fantasy collide in one woman’s solitary life.

Wednesday – Exhibition Opens: György Kepes: The New Landscape 10-6pm @ Exhibition Research Centre (ERC), Liverpool – FREE

A companion to Tate Liverpool’s György Kepes exhibition (see next listing), The New Landscape exhibition examines artist — and exhibition designer — Kepes’ undying fascination with art and science through his exploration of light, organic form and technology. With an extensive back-catalogue of experimental photography, archival material, a re-construction of his 1951 modular exhibition structure, plus a printed intervention by artist Tadej Pogačar to boast, we explore the broad and inspiring reach of this innovative yet little-known creator.

Lecture: Pattern Vision: The New Landscape In Art And Science By György Kepes 4-6pm @ Tate Liverpool – FREE (Booking Essential)

Along with the opening of The New Landscapes exhibition at the ERC, tonight we are treated to a talk with Kepes aficionado, John R. Blakinger, to provide insight and discussion into the pedagogical perspective of the artist’s artistic vision. Taking inspiration from Kepes’ book and 1951 exhibition, The New Landscape, topics will include the artist’s study of visual patterns, microscopic minerals and cell structures and asks: ‘can the disparate cultures of art and science collaborate for a common purpose?’

Drenge 7.30pm @ The Kazimier, Liverpool – £12 ADV

As news that our beloved Kazimier will close next year, let’s go as much as we can, while we can. If you’re looking for high energy rock ‘n’ roll to combat those pesky mid-week blues, then look no further. Midway through their latest UK tour (see here for more dates) and in support of their latest album Undertow, The Kazimier welcomes the Loveless brothers to inject their ‘ferocious intelligence’ and ‘dumb, potent noise’ (the Guardian) to this week’s line up. Expect the violence of the Sex Pistols and vicious riffs to rival Nirvana.

Thursday – Unspeakable Freedom: Screening, Live Performance & Debate 6.30pm @ Primary, Nottingham – £4 (ticket includes a free drink)

Food for thought come election time? An experimental film referencing sci-fi and fantasy, Jennet Thomas’ (Matt’s Gallery, London) The Unspeakable Freedom Device explores a warped dystopia where the characters become entangled in a ‘Thatcher cargo-cult’, ‘where the difference between technology and magic has become incomprehensible’. Joining the artist to discuss art and politics will be artist Sonya Dyer, curator and Art Monthly writer Jennifer Thatcher and Programme Curator at Primary Niki Russell.

The Chemical Brothers: Don’t Think & Q&A 7-9pm @ Somerset House, London – £10

Hey Boy, Hey Girl – tonight we are invited to contemplate the transformative effect that sound, film and light have on an audience, in this one off screening of The Chemical Brothers’ 2012 film, Don’t Think. Charting the inimitable duo’s electrifying performance at Japan’s iconic Fuji Rock Festival 2011, we experience a ‘demented firework display of kaleidoscopic assault and psychedelic wonder’ (BBC Music) followed by a live Q&A session with co-directors Adam Smith and Marcus Lyall to provide insight into their unique vision.

PICK OF THE WEEK: Friday – Exhibition Opens: No Homers Club 6pm til late @ Constellations, Liverpool – £6

“When will I learn? The answers to life’s problems aren’t at the bottom of a bottle, they’re on TV!” So it’s about time someone paid tribute to the best TV show ever made in this multi-disciplinary exhibition celebrating our favourite and most beloved dysfunctional family, The Simpsons. Featuring artwork and music from the likes of Organ Freeman, Thom Isom, Hannah Roberts, Klaus Pinter and Harrison Edwards: expect a proper party with computer games designers, foodies, face painters, costume designers, and, of course, a donut stand.

Saturday –External Machines Breakfast Crit 10-12pm @ The Royal Standard, Liverpool – FREE

We all know breakfast is the most important meal of the day – so adding a bit of contemporary art into the mix can only be an improvement. To accompany The Royal Standard’s latest exhibition — that explores ‘the physical, self-imposed and necessary tension that exists between constriction and relief’ — we join featured artists – Catrin Davies and Lewis Wright, Adam Ferriss, David Frame, and Chloe Manasseh and Janneke van Leeuwen – in this one-off public, informal discussion of their artworks and working processes in greater detail.

Record Store Day @ Venues Nationwide — FREE

Established in the US back in 2007 to bring together, support and celebrate independently owned record stores and their culture, expect live music and performances, special vinyl and CD releases and meet and greets. In Liverpool, head down to Probe, Dig Vinyl and 3B Records, as well as a pop-ups at Constellations and East Village Arts Club; in Manchester, head to Piccadilly Records, Eastern Bloc Records, Beatin Rhythm and then to Soup Kitchen or Islington Mill for live shows. For a comprehensive list of participating venues in the North-West and around the UK check out this handy store finder.

Last Day: Living Data – Michael Takeo Magruder 10-3pm @ The Brindley Arts Centre, Runcorn – FREE

This fascinating solo exhibition by international digital artist Michael Takeo Magruder explores the evolving virtual and physical artworks that can be created from the digital domain. Using the collective data that underpins our everyday existence, modern computer systems and traditional visual art seamlessly converge to form a series of visually stunning and thought-provoking images. Expect hybrid paintings, sculptures, installations and videos that create an immersive experience within living data.

Sunday – Last Day: Nick Crowe And Ian Rawlinson: Song For Coal 10-5pm @ Yorkshire Sculpture Park – FREE

Utilising the collections of the National Coal Mining Museum and Drax Power Station, the power of the human voice takes centre stage in this immersive exhibition. Set inside the park’s beautiful 18^th century chapel, the artwork combines ‘plainsong’ and video imagery that traces coal ‘from the carboniferous to the post-industrial’ and, in doing so, contemplates notions of faith, politics and the environment.

Heather Garner