This project stems from an increasing anxiety and frustration towards capitalism and the subsequent climate emergency. Having grown up in London, since moving to Preston, I have started to appreciate a slower pace of life with more access to the countryside and reject the individualistic and congested life of London. 

In October 2022 the United Nations Environment Programme published its Emissions Gap Report, which found “no credible pathway to 1.5C in place” and that we are currently on track to reach a catastrophic 2.8C of warming by the end of the century. Then in March 2023 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered its ‘final warning’, the world must act now or it will be too late. The larger routines of capitalism, greed, exploitation and the people taking advantage of it need to be challenged and held accountable for any hope of a sustainable and enjoyable future. 

In response to these issues, I have been exploring utopia and processing what my personal utopian values may be, not trying to find utopia as a ‘perfect’ end destination, but aiming to apply ideas of utopia to life now, as a way of developing something better, through the imagination of what utopia could be.  Something with a gentle existence, in peaceful harmony with nature and each other. I have adopted an experimental visual approach to these complex and intersectional topics, which has helped aid the start of a more fluid processing of them. I hope the resulting zine offers people space to reflect on these issues and consider what their own ideas of utopia could be, inspiring some change in the process. 

Please get in touch if you would like a copy of the zine.

Exhibited:

University of Central Lancashire Degree Show, Preston: June 8th - 26th 2023