Ref 2021 Portfolio: Rethinking the Brownfield, Anna Francis

Rethinking the Brownfield is a body of work which Francis began working on in 2012. The initial research took place during a research residency in Nara, Japan, where Francis learned the Japanese flower arranging technique Ikebana, before returning to Stoke-on-Trent to begin an exploration of 3 city centre Brownfields, the site of the greyhound track, the abbatoir and the ABC Cinema. These 3 sites became the focus of activity, and have been visited regularly since 2012, where workshops have been hosted on the sites, as well as the sites explored and responsive artworks created in the form of ‘Brownfield Ikebana’ in 2012, 2015 and 2018. Francis has also looked closely at developed Brownfields, via a research activity looking at the former National Garden Festival Site (see the Lost Gardens curatorial project) and Westport Lake (see Birder’s Paradise.) Rethinking the Brownfield also led to the development of the Spode Rose Garden in a previously disused space, now a public green space. This project along with Brownfield Ikebana workshops, urban nature tours and Brownfield Banquets have all created space for dialogue with the public about the usefulness and purpose of these sites in ecological terms for wildlife and humans.

Francis has shared information about the project at the Nordic Geographer’s Conference, Estonia 2014, The London Design Festival in 2014, and in talks and events at Arnolfini Bristol, at the British Ceramics Biennial 2015, at the Manchester Contemporary Art Fair, 2018 and via exhibitions in Stoke-on-Trent, Birmingham and Nottingham. The research process relating to The Spode Rose Garden was presented within a documentary display of the project commissioned for the Small Worlds Exhibition at New Art Gallery Walsall in 2015.

This portfolio was prepared to support the submission of Rethinking the Brownfield for the Ref 2021 exercise.