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The series Plymouth Rocks is part of a wider study investigating the South West of England – specifically Plymouth – as a point of arrival and departure, exploring through photography, historical and contemporary links with the Americas.
Plymouth Rocks consists of thirty postcards of the same view (each with a slightly different visual prescription) of Plymouth Rock in Massachusetts - traditionally considered to be disembarkation site of the Mayflower passengers who founded the Plymouth Colony - with each postcard standing symbolically for one of the thirty Plymouth settlements in the United States.
Plymouth Rocks explores ideas of myth and the memorialisation of place through multiple photographic reproductions of the same scene, examining notions of authenticity and validity both in the perpetuation of historical accounts and more broadly within the photographic medium.
Plymouth Rocks was presented at the Lion’s Den, situated amongst the rocky foreshore of Plymouth Hoe and installed within predetermined ‘frames’ created as a consequence of graffiti removal. The Lion’s Den provided an appropriate context to display the series, with the structure facing out towards Plymouth Sound, the horizon line, and the route taken by the Mayflower ship on its voyage to 'The New World' in 1620.