‘Retreat: the UK’s first climate refugees’ at Atrium Gallery, Middlesex University, 2024
This exhibition, taking place as part of Barnet Climate Action Month, brings together artwork and research exploring the changing coastal landscape of Fairbourne, North Wales. Fairbourne hit the news in 2021 when government officials declared that due to rising sea levels, the village would no longer be safe or sustainable for habitation by the year 2052. Local authorities unveiled a plan for ‘managed retreat’, putting a stop to the maintenance of sea defences. The press declared the residents the UK’s first climate refugees.
‘Retreat’ presents two contrasting visions of Fairbourne’s future. Using photography and sculpture. Georgia Clemson imagines the remnants that will be left behind when the village is lost to the sea. In her accompanying film she uses the constant flow of water to emphasise the vulnerability of the site, flanked as it is by the Mawddach Estuary, the mountains and the Irish Sea. It ends with Fairbourne disappearing in the rear view mirror as the sun sets over the town. Daniel Shaw’s Landscape Institute award-winning design thesis Fairbourne 2070: Adapting Coastlines, Changing Lives describes a more optimistic fate. In this innovative design work, Shaw proposes the thriving coastal economy that Fairbourne could become if the town can adapt to coexist with the water that threatens its existence.
‘Fragments’, 2024. C-Prints, resin and acrylic artefacts in museum vitrine.