Current
Wallace writes about ‘care’ and nuclear contamination based on her sculpture exhibition – ‘x = 2140. In the coming 120 years, how can humans decide to dismantle, remember and repair the lands called Sellafield?‘ – for the open-access journal ARTS‘ special edition on ‘time’.
Wallace wrote and produced ‘the sea cannot be depleted‘, a spoken word and sound piece for online and radio broadcast about the sea, about how a sense of place evolves with the changing forces of the sea and about the military dumping of depleted uranium into the Solway Firth.
Listen online at theseacannotbedepleted.net
Wallace was in online conversation with the sculptor B.D. Owens, and respondent, poet Gerry Loose, 8 March 2022. She spoke about ‘the sea cannot be depleted’ in the context of the changes in nuclear conditions since the start of the Ukraine-Russian war. The talk is part of – Glasgow: Conversations about Art in a Time of Environmental Change – curated by Tim Collins and Reiko Goto.
These two audio fiction pieces inspired by the Duddon Estuary in Cumbria were written by Wallace and performed live by local actors as part of ‘Unpublished Tour‘, a collection of commissioned artworks about the estuary curated by Irene Rogan. Audio recordings of the performances are online. More here.
Photo: Black Combe from across the Duddon Estuary at Roanhead
There will be five human generations between 2020 and 2140, the year by which the Sellafield site is to be decommissioned, its purposes changed and its legacies cast. Each generation will make decisions on this future while enduring unpredictable ecological changes and uncertain political, economic and technological conditions.
Wallace’s three sculptures play with the iconic architecture and industrial shapes of Sellafield to create metaphoric ‘fonts’.
The exhibition was supported by the University of Manchester’s Beam research network and the Dalton Nuclear Institute and was funded by the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC).
Photo: Font No. 1
www.facebook.com/nuclearsitefutures
The exhibition at Florence Arts Centre, Egremont, Cumbria, was closed in February 2020 with the first pandemic lockdown. We are looking to mount the exhibition again in 2022 in Liverpool. Details to come. More on the sculptures here.
When the Future Comes / The Future Machine
Wallace is one of the artists working with Rachel Jacobs on ‘When the Future Comes’, investigating how, with a changing climate, the future is perceived across five places in England.
In Cumbria, we devised an experience for people to ‘think with a river’ along the Windermere-Leven watershed. We came together in October 2021 with Jacobs’ Future Machine. There are plans to continue the project annually, along more Cumbrian watersheds.
Photo: Footbridge over the River Leven, by Rachel Jacobs
Art at COP26
Wallace is working with Creative Carbon Scotland on a report on art at COP26 in Glasgow as part of the CreaTures eco-social practice research project. The report will be completed in summer 2022.
Recent work includes
Workshops: writing workshops with Rebecca Beinart as part of her ‘Desire Lines’ project in Keswick, Cumbria.
Talks: ‘How do we care? An exploration of shame and play’ for Becoming Earthly at the Barn Arts Centre, Scotland.
Writing: ‘Theatre, conflict and nature’ and ‘Women scientists at the Freshwater Biological Association, Cumbria’
Eco-social practice: Councils on the Uncertain Human Future, Edinburgh