This body of work brings together fictional and non-fictional accounts of various natural and technological disasters to explore our relationship with the natural world and the invented world. The traditions of storytelling that include the folk ballad, the broadside sheet and the disaster film are brought together in this body of work. Wax cylinder recordings and letterpress printed broadside sheets present tales of how we deal with hardship, death, destruction and survival. New disaster songs have been developed from existing melodies recounting animal attacks, floods, earthquakes, shipwrecks, plane crashes and collapsing bridges. This work also developed into a live performance/video piece Performing Stories of Alienation and Disaster.

Images above taken from Stories of Alienation and Disaster at Die Raum, Berlin, The Animal Gaze Returned at Sir John Cass Faculty of Art, London Met University and SIA Gallery, Sheffield and Needle In A Cloud at Fold Gallery, London.

Thanks go to musicians Jeremy Cusworth, Caroline Helbert and Jason Steel for their work on the songs included in this body of work. Thanks also go to Duncan Miller of the Vulcan Wax Cylinder Recording Company and Kelvyn Smith of Mr. Smith’s Letterpress Workshop. The project was made possible with funding from Arts Council England. 

Images courtesy of the artist, Alex Schmidt and Jan Windszus.