Coating
‍Anna Chrystal Stephens
Studio 10
01.02.2025 - 20.04.2025

Many of us are drawn to ancient standing stones. Planted in the earth and rising from the ground, these lumps of solid matter stand as evidence of a persistent need for interconnectedness that stretches across millennia; an ancient gesture, at once lost and found.

Encountering these stones today offers a glimpse into the lives of past people, whilst the sense of mystery surrounding them makes them a screen onto which we can project meaning. The monochrome analogue prints on display here show charismatic stone circles and ancient sites found in the South West, photographed as souvenirs of a time when land-person relationships were closer, and knowledge about the edibility of plants was commonplace.

The framed photographic typology, titled Grid, shows examples of plant gathering and processing for consumption or salve. A long period of personal research into plant uses has led, more recently, to experiments with primitive dying techniques using commonly gathered and grown species. These techniques have been incorporated into the making of the reversible fabric sculpture also on view here.

Over Cover Coat was constructed using repurposed textiles. The outside is made of natural fibres that have been botanically dyed with bioactive plants, while the inside is made using scraps of synthetic materials taken from defunct tents and ‘Outdoor Clothing’. The processes and decoration used to create the garment take inspiration from folk histories and stories passed on from ‘Hedgewitch’ to Mender. Daydreams of outdoor adventure are pressed right up against a search for domestic comfort. The garment is part blanket, part jacket — to be used as a den, protective shelter, or ceremonial garb.

The two contact-print images in this exhibition were created using the anthotype process — the most basic and low-impact way of producing photographs. These coloured, shadowy images are made by first coating paper with a homemade plant-based emulsion, before placing an object or image on top, and then exposing the paper to sunlight. These fugitive prints continue to disappear as they are being viewed.

An off-beat understanding of plant properties, alongside consistent use of photography as a medium has led to a fascination with eco-analogue processes. The darkroom — a glowing nostalgic cave and shrine to another (analogue) era of image-making — is a place where we can experience photography’s materiality and alchemical ‘magic’. Homemade developers made with polyphenols, chlorophyll and tannins coax images to the surface on out-of-date mineral coatings.

Weeds are tested for their capability to produce ecologically safer solutions, where the outcomes are variable, messy and often impermanent. Unbound by formal representation, this kind of analogue photography offers a freedom to muddy the images with plant residue and colour stains.

Together, these processes address the materiality of image making in an eco-anxious time. Scavenged vegetation, outdoor contexts and ancient motifs reflect the ways in which yearly cycles are still marked. Sabbats, circles for feasts, rituals, and contemplation; all invitations to embrace light leaks, dark nights, sparkling days, impermanence, glow, dust, dirt and re-loved material, as we try to find the route back to understanding ecology.

Artist Biography

Anna Chrystal Stephens works with sculpture, photography and action. Her practice explores living strategies at the intersection of domesticity and the wild, looking at how outdoor skills and analogue processes can alter relationships between humans and habitats. Anna facilitates participatory activities which investigate how old, land-based knowledge of ancient cultures and their residue in contemporary folk practices, can be both provocative and heartening in times of ecological unravelling. She uses natural materials, recycled materials and defunct camping gear to make objects with real or imagined purposes, forming links between ancient techniques, contemporary tools and sustainability.

During her time based in London, Anna was part of the artist group Vulpes Vulpes, alongside Carla Wright, Hadiru Mahdi, Laurie Storey. Together, the group worked with many other artists to organise and facilitate a range of projects, whilst also exploring their own socially engaged practice. Anna is now based in Wiltshire and is co-director of SILT (Sustainable Image Lab, Trowbridge CIC) — an arts research studio and education space she runs with Alison Ballance.

Anna’s solo/duo exhibitions include: Anorak at SPACE (London) and Hardwick Gallery (Cheltenham), Something In Both Pockets at Lewisham Art House (London), There are No Firm Rules at Site Gallery (Sheffield) and Sometimes Biting, Sometimes Bit... at Urban Room (Folkstone Fringe). Anna has also featured in recent group shows at the Whitechapel Gallery (London), Broadway Gallery (Letchworth) and Forum Box (Helsinki). Since returning to the South West, Anna has been commissioned to produce artwork for Somerset Art Works (Water Histories Project), Trowbridge Museum (Weft), Hospital Rooms, Promenade and Od Arts Festival.

All images courtesy of the artist