Unsettled Ground, Salford Art Gallery & multiple outdoor venues across Salford and Manchester from 2021-
In 2020, Jack was awarded a commission to make a new artwork for You Belong Here, at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, an exhibition exploring past histories of Salfords landscape and green spaces. After researching the archive at Salford Museum and Art Gallery, Jack made Unsettled Ground, a series of architectural models of lost buildings of Salford. The models represent an unexpectedly rich architecture in the form of Stately homes, back to back terraces, Cotton Mills, workhouses, workshops, mansion houses and contemporary tower blocks. The models are built to function as nesting boxes for birds, to reference wildlife habitat lost during the Industrial Revolution and the detrimental impact on birdlife due to the current regeneration of the cities of Salford and Manchester.
When You Belong Here ends in June 2022, Unsettled Ground will be installed in trees and on buildings in Salford and Manchester to provide new nesting sites for birds.
A second edition of Unsettled Ground will also be installed in on and beside participating venues for A Modest Show The British Art Show 09. In this way the installation will act as new habitat for birds and insects and also a signifyer of the various locations for the British Art Show in 2022.