Recovered

I have mentioned David Shepherd’s work “Discarded” previously. In it he displays items recovered using string and a magnet from the bottom of a canal, and notes that what initially started off as a historical project rapidly transmuted into social documentary as a result of the unknown, or guessed at,  backstories of the items recovered.

The objects I find on metal beach – at least the ones that are free to take away – are less easily recognisable and lend themselves less easily to an imagined backstory although they clearly lend themselves to an archaeological reading. They are also few and far between as the iron waste clings on to them quite tenaciously.