Women + Archives - Stockport: Seen

Stockport Seen: Helen Clapcott + Suzie Cloves

That mixing point where huge old solid-but-shifting structures are made bright by human life that steps through… what really isn't "wasteland" at all.’

Listen to artist Helen Clapcott speak from key places on her journey through Stockport’s changing landscape. Helen reflects on the spot where the town became her muse, helps us notice where it’s at today, then takes us off track for a little surprise urban exploring to find an abandoned railway. For Women + Archives, Suzie Clove’s augmented reality landscapes took inspiration from Helen Clapcott’s artworks. ‘

Weir Mill

Tiviot Dale

Yew Street

Weir Mill Tiviot Dale Yew Street

Recording Helen felt like an extraordinary privilege, as if I'd been shown a view across the world that nobody normally gets to see. I love to spend time in museums because there's so much ingenuity and strangeness on display. It inspires and bewilders me, sends me off feeling as if I just took a wander through somewhere new. It primes my mind to come up with stuff that just wouldn't have emerged without those creations that you lot put out into reality for me to find and reflect on.

Helen's paintings do this too, very strongly. It turns out that so does Helen herself... especially when she took me plunging off through tangled woodland in search of an abandoned railway tunnel! Where (of course) we found signs that the place is not abandoned at all. Which may stand for what Stockport means for both of us: that mixing point where huge old solid-but-shifting structures are made bright by human life that steps through worn stone doorways, cuts through odd little carparks, ambles down colourful high streets and out into what really isn't "wasteland" at all.

Helen Clapcott:

Since graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 1978, Helen Clapcott has been artistically drawn to the post-industrial landscape of North England, particularly her home town of Stockport. One of the most exciting artists painting in the North West today, Helen paints landscapes intent on erasing all evidence of its industrial heritage, depicting the evolution of these urban spaces. In Women + Archives, Suzie Clove’s augmented reality landscapes took inspiration from Helen Clapcott’s artworks.

Suzie Cloves:

Suzie Cloves is based at the Manchester Centre for Public Histories & Heritage, at Manchester Metropolitan University. She is interested in what public places mean to people, and how we are affected by changes to those places. Suzie designs and creates sonic augmented realities for landscapes for 'Women + Archives'. Living in Edgeley, Stockport, she researches local people’s heritage by geolocated sound. It lets her put people's heritage directly into their landscape, as a sonic structure that we can interact with, even though no official historic landmarks exist.