The Museum of Contemporary Farming: an impossible project
Georgina Barney with Alice Carey, in development
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Photograph by Alice Carey showing an agricultural diorama in
the Science Museum, London
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How is the Countryside Sold?
Georgina Barney with Alice Carey and Matthew Hoyland, 2011-2012
Featured in ‘Always Greener: Views of the Contemporary Countryside’ curated by
Rosemary Shirley at the Pitzhanger Morris Gallery, London, 2012.
Commissioned by Radar Arts, Loughborough University for Green Days, and
supported by the European Cultural Foundation.
How is the Countryside Sold? is an installation which may include some of the
following: a historic livestock portrait; film ‘Walkin’ Progress’ by pig farmer and
photographer Matthew Hoyland showing a walk from his farm to the nearest
supermarket; a Nat West collectible piggy bank and accompanying research
material; timeline; a life‐size drawing of a bull; mobile phone films showing the
Blackbrook Longhorns, a prize‐winning herd of Longhorn cattle.
The installation draws upon research into the legacy of the agricultural revolution.
In the eighteenth century, at Dishley Grange near Loughborough in Leicestershire,
Robert Bakewell pioneered new breeding methods to develop the modern farm
animal. Today, a farm close to the site of Bakewell’s experiments is home to both
the Blackbrook Longhorn herd of cattle and the Blackbrook Gallery. Dealing in
historic livestock portraiture, the gallery is testament to Bakewell’s contribution to
modern agricultural science in a period of rapid progress. Meanwhile, Blackbrook’s
prize‐winning Longhorns, Bakewell’s favoured breed embody his legacy in the
aesthetic pursuit of breeders. In the display of idealised profiles, farming returns to
art.
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Installation view of How is the Countryside Sold? showing ‘Walkin’ Progress’
by Matthew Hoyland and in the background work and documentation by James Ireland and MyVillages
Farming Fiction
Georgina Barney with Alice Carey, 2010
Commissioned by Sideshow 2010 and supported by the National Farmers’ Union
Farming Fiction is a map of the county of
Nottinghamshire. The images and text on
the publication come from a series of discussions with farmers in location
about a series of poems. The map was launched in the city of Nottingham in the
company of a public audience and the policy maker Caroline Spelman MP, DEFRA
Secretary. Farmers re‐read the poem they had discussed with Georgina Barney.
After a public discussion the audience responded with new ‘poem‐policies’,
re‐imagining farming for the future.
Farming Fiction copy of map design (poster side) by Toby Lea at the NFU
with Georgina Barney
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