As part of Jerwood/Photoworks Awards 4, artist Joanne Coates has compiled a reading list that shares some of the texts, films and conversations that have informed her research throughout the production of The Lie of the Land.
Through the collated references, Joanne expands on her interest in class, rural spaces and the histories they contain. Bringing into focus the history of these spaces – the moors, the rolling fields – as hosts to radical and transformative politics, art and change.
The Lie of the Land is a body of work that explores the social history of the land and narrates a story of gender and class that has long been forgotten – or simply never told – in relation to the countryside of the North East of England.
Read
Art as Social Action: An Introduction to the Principles and Practices of Teaching Social Practice Art, Chloe Bass (ed) & Gregory Sholette (ed), 2018.
The Melancholia of Class: A Manifesto for the Working Class, Cynthia Cruz, 2021.
Creating the Countryside: The Rural Idyll, Verity Elson, Rosemary Shirley (ed), 2017.
‘Kill All the Gentlemen’ Class Struggle and Change in the English Countryside, Martin Empson, 2018.
The Racing Tribe, Kate Fox, 2005.
Protest Politics and Work in Rural England, 1700 – 1850, Carl. J Griffin, 2013.
On the Rural: Economy, Sociology, Geography, Henri Lefebvre, 2022.
Comparative Analysis of Rural Poverty and Inequality in the UK and the US, Ruth McAreavey & David L. Brown, 2019.
The Rurual: Documents of Contemporary Art, Myvillages (ed), 2019.
Steal As Much As You Can: How to Win the Culture wars in the Age of Austerity, Nathalie Olah, 2019.
Class. Nathalie Olah. 2021.
British Rural Landscapes on Film, Pail Newland, 2016.
The Non-Metropolitan Everyday and Visual Culture, Rosemary Shirley, 2018.
Rural Modernity, Everyday Life and Visual Culture, Rosemary Shirley, 2015.
Rurality Reimagined: Villagers, Farmers, Wanderers and Wild Things, Ben Stringer, 2018.
Horror and Working Class Identity, Sammy Willbourne, 2021. Available here.
Watch
I Am, John Clare, 1884, read by Tom Hiddleston, 2019. Available here.
Eden Lake, directed by James Watkins, 2018.
A Field in England, directed by Ben Wheatley, 2013.
Listen
Moral Maze, What is the Countryside For?, BBC Radio 4, 2019. Available here.
The Lie of the Land [Playlist], Joanne Coates, 2022. Available here.
Working Class History E13: Women in the Miners’ Strike [Podcast], James French, 2019. Available here.
The Homecomers [Podcast], Sarah Smarsh, 2019. Available here.
Visit
The Fitzhugh Archives, The Fitzhugh Library, Teesdale.
Countryside, The Future, 2020. [Exhibition]. The Guggenheim, New York City. February 20, 2020 – February 15, 2021.
