The work is currently being made with a view to being exhibited in 2014.
Made in locations across Europe, beginning two years ago in Glasgow, the series entails a set of night cityscapes and creates imaginary spaces out of urban wastelands. In Sown every single photograph represents the effort made by a community to transform their city. The work is an exploration of urban hybrid environments, wastelands where public and private, natural and artificial interact. In between a light installation and a photographic project, the work offers a novel approach to the representation of the everyday.
Sown engages in an inquiry on re-appropriation of unused/underused urban space in the city. Looking at wastelands, retaken and transformed by people, and representing them in a new form, during the night, when under cover of darkness everything is unified, a blank canvas on which I could re- imagine another space through the manipulation of light and with the support of the people living around it. By planting lights in specific areas of these spaces I am able to highlight particular areas and conversely hide others and in doing so, redefine the borders. These places are symbols, understated beacons of a new civil society, where the participants understand the importance of community and its relationship to the environment. Whilst our cities are obsessed with monumental architecture, where towers, the very embodiment and physical manifestation of power, are being continually erected, these small pockets of greenery challenge our perceptions of land and ownership, but also perhaps point towards a new more inclusive and tolerant society. (Daniele Sambo)