Arkadia

Arkadia is a 6 month public art commission resulting in an exhibition opening on the 23rd September 2021 as part of the Wastelands: Public Art Now festival, commissioned by Urban Wilderness CIC, a collective based in Stoke on Trent, funded by Arts council England, The Canal River Trust and National Lottery. "Sited in a large empty shop unit at Longton Exchange Shopping Centre, one of the six towns of Stoke on Trent, Rushton:Mallinson have created a mixed media immersive installation incorporating sculptural and photographic elements, exploring the human relationship to the natural world, the environmental impact of mass consumerism and potential consequences of climate change." Arkadia fuses Mallinson’s ideological, political and satirical sculpture with Rushton’s eco-psychological, photographic dioramas. The work, sited in ecological posthumanism, explores the cultural imaginaries of science and speculative fiction; a blend of the sculptural and photographic that seeks to make manifest, dystopian myths of the near future. The commission was particularly focussed on public engagement and included a walk on Rough Close Common with an ecologist from Stafford County Council and a public talk at the gallery, highlighting sites of ecological importance in Stoke's brownfield areas.