Hadrian’s Wall 1900 Exhibition

2022 marked 1900 years since the building of Hadrian’s Wall. It was celebrated through activities and events along the length of its site (see the official HW1900 site: https://1900.hadrianswallcountry.co.uk/).

One of those events was a print exhibition. Printmakers were invited to make a work exactly 300mm high, designed to be tiled into a long line.

The exhibition was shown in Newcastle at Northern Print and in Egremont at Florence Arts Centre.

I submitted a four-colour, jigsaw-cut linoprint called Between Milecastles 68 and 70, named for my allocated section of the wall.

The section of Hadrian’s Wall between Milecastles 68 to 70 now lies lost beneath the land along River Eden’s floodplain. It drew me to consider the impact of a colossal wall built across a rolling landscape marked by grassland, winding river and overarching sky. My linoprint has origins in a series of sketches exploring the behaviour of water that I’ve made along the River Caldew, which meets the Eden close to this part of the Wall.

From these drawings, I’ve developed work over the past year that explores the flows of different natural processes. This is the basis of my print: water, cloud and grass flows contrast with the blockwork and harsh lines of a wall built to divide the land.