Robin Dowell and William Arnold

Public Consultation & Screening
19.00 – 20.00 Saturday 5th January

Back Lane West Associate Artist Robin Dowell is collaborating with artist photographer William Arnold on a new project entitled, Official Secrets. 

Exploring a mutual fascination with the secretive MOD site at Nancekuke, Dowell and Arnold explore a bizarre and troubling history. Previously the centre of the UK’s chemical weapons programme, a part of the site is now used to grow cauliflowers, while appearing to remain under the jurisdiction of the armed forces.

In the absence of transparency about Nancekuke, due the Official Secrets Act, a notable local mythology has grown in its place, with rumours ranging from the sinister but plausible, to the weird and wonderful. In response to this ‘facts-vacuum’ the artists have begun to create their own, at times absurd, narratives which borrow the visual language of the austere, while often suggesting the farcical.