PRIVATE KEEP OUT, NO PUBLIC RIGHT OF WAY, PRIVATE PROPERTY, NO PUBLIC ACCESS. It is difficult to walk for long in the English countryside before some form of ‘Private – Keep Out’ sign is encountered. There are many different variations of these signs … some are visually and verbally aggressive, others attempt to be more courteous or diplomatic in their bid to keep the public away, and yet others allude to ‘good’ that the landowner is doing that will be undone by members of the public accessing the land. The signs can take many physical forms—homemade and misspelt, mass-produced plastic, polished and site-specific—but their content is often capitalised and lacking in punctuation.

Etymologically, something private (from the Latin privatus) is something ‘set apart’, set apart from that which is public, of the people. The act of defining this thing set apart is an act of raising boundaries, an act of dividing, of othering. These signs are a stand-in for the landowner themselves … they are the landowner’s proxy, sited around the perimeter of a property alerting the passer-by that they should not cross a boundary. Currently in England access to nature is a hot topic and the Right to Roam movement is gaining followers, according to their figures 92% of England is out of bounds to the public (due to ancient laws of ownership).

Through this body of work, I am interested in exploring the history and politics of the land ownership that begets these signs. I’m also interested in the language and aesthetics of these symbols of land ownership, along with the dynamics of what this ownership does to the countryside in terms of spatial division and perception. My work is taking a number of forms, including my own signs, artist’s books, multiples and soundworks. I intend to have an exhibition of the series … watch this space (and/or my Instagram feed) for news!