STILL/MOVING PROJECTS CIC
Still/Moving Projects is an artists’ collective made up of Martin Hampton, Laura Hopes and Léonie Hampton, who work collaboratively with diverse communities to create site specific artworks. Our projects aim to create the conditions for shared learning and change through a close attention to people and place.
Project Speedwell
.Still/Moving see the Mayflower 400 commemorations as an opportunity to reflect on the complex
place in history of the Mayflower Story. Project Speedwell seeks to bring the questions raised by
the Mayflower’s journey into a contemporary perspective, concerning issues of migration,
humankind’s relationship to the environment, and unequal social relations. We propose a large
scale text artwork as a catalyst for a series of public conversations, events and related projects
aimed at raising the quality of public discourse around the Mayflower Story.
The pilgrims who left England in 1620 turned their backs on the “Old World”. Turning away from
all the social, political, economic and religious problems they saw plaguing Europe, they headed
to what they considered to be unknown and unclaimed lands where they believed they could
begin from a blank slate. The memory of the pioneering spirit that propelled them to settle what
they termed ‘The New World’ must not be allowed to dominate our understanding of how this
colonial project developed. The subsequent decimation and enslavement of the indigenous
American population and the appropriation of their lands through the dubious use of legal and
religious justifications remains an unpalatable but urgent counterpoint to the sanitised pilgrim
foundation myth, exemplified by the way the Mayflower Story is told at Thanksgiving
celebrations across America.
In the 21st century there are no 'new worlds' or unclaimed territories to turn to. We remain
constrained to the ever-more populated lands beneath our fragile atmosphere. The need to
resolve differences through dialogue is greater than ever, while the very human desire to seek
greener pastures elsewhere remains.
People make journeys in search of a safer and better life, and capital still flows towards new
markets in the hope of finding lucrative opportunities. Environmental concerns are pushed aside
in the quest for unending economic growth and the lure of prosperity or sanctuary fuels this
ceaseless flux; mankind has never been so aware of our part in causing the precarious status of
the planet and yet we seem to plough ahead relentlessly.
Project Speedwell proposes to articulate the tension of this condition through the creation of a
large scale illuminated text installation on the Mount Batten Breakwater
place in history of the Mayflower Story. Project Speedwell seeks to bring the questions raised by
the Mayflower’s journey into a contemporary perspective, concerning issues of migration,
humankind’s relationship to the environment, and unequal social relations. We propose a large
scale text artwork as a catalyst for a series of public conversations, events and related projects
aimed at raising the quality of public discourse around the Mayflower Story.
The pilgrims who left England in 1620 turned their backs on the “Old World”. Turning away from
all the social, political, economic and religious problems they saw plaguing Europe, they headed
to what they considered to be unknown and unclaimed lands where they believed they could
begin from a blank slate. The memory of the pioneering spirit that propelled them to settle what
they termed ‘The New World’ must not be allowed to dominate our understanding of how this
colonial project developed. The subsequent decimation and enslavement of the indigenous
American population and the appropriation of their lands through the dubious use of legal and
religious justifications remains an unpalatable but urgent counterpoint to the sanitised pilgrim
foundation myth, exemplified by the way the Mayflower Story is told at Thanksgiving
celebrations across America.
In the 21st century there are no 'new worlds' or unclaimed territories to turn to. We remain
constrained to the ever-more populated lands beneath our fragile atmosphere. The need to
resolve differences through dialogue is greater than ever, while the very human desire to seek
greener pastures elsewhere remains.
People make journeys in search of a safer and better life, and capital still flows towards new
markets in the hope of finding lucrative opportunities. Environmental concerns are pushed aside
in the quest for unending economic growth and the lure of prosperity or sanctuary fuels this
ceaseless flux; mankind has never been so aware of our part in causing the precarious status of
the planet and yet we seem to plough ahead relentlessly.
Project Speedwell proposes to articulate the tension of this condition through the creation of a
large scale illuminated text installation on the Mount Batten Breakwater