In the group of images comprising ‘Common Ground’ and ‘Weeds’, Denis Doran aims to explore connections both geographic and autobiographical in the peopled and productive landscape, in the specific urban environment of the allotment.

Connections which are rooted in an image of North Eastern working class culture (the artist’s own background), but which extend beyond such confines to encompass shared experience across cultural and geographic boundaries.

Although physically bounded, the allotment affords a space for reflection as well as physical activity – the imagery in ‘Common Ground’ reflects the dual nature of this local landscape.

“I use a flat bed scanner to record the ground upon which I stand. The scanner glass is literally resting on the earth, resulting in a ‘virtual’ cast of the ground at my feet. Combined with worked photographic fragments I aim to address notions of cyclical change and acknowledge that the land I stand upon is not mine, is only in our keeping (my partner and myself) for a brief time. The land I pass across has a history of which I am part. Eventually we will leave traces just as the people before us have left something of themselves. Anonymous though they are, still their presence is felt in the way the land has been worked, modified. In turn we will impress ourselves on the site leaving marks, however fleeting. So the site echoes a history of shared experience, of common purpose to which we have become a part.”
Denis Doran



‘Weeds’ has its starting point in the overlooked, undervalued; those plants which, because of their spreading habit are seen as “hindering the growth of superior vegetation” but which are an essential part of this local landscape. Viewed as individual specimens they have a beauty and elegance that belies their status.
Denis Doran will give a gallery tour and discuss the work in the exhibition on Saturday 7th May at 3pm. A reception for the work takes place on Saturday 7th at 7pm. Both events are free and all are welcome.



A Minigraph with a commissioned article by David Chandler , ‘Earth Space History: The Recent Work of Denis Doran’, accompanied the exhibition.

A slideshow of the exhibition in situ and documentation of the gallery talk.