This project explores the effects of the cultural vacuum left by commercialisation and social decline in Colchester, Essex, through surrealist practice. Through a combination of documentary photography, still-life images, and experimental technique, the work highlights the cycles of substance abuse that permeate a place that was once crowned the UK’s “most miserable city.”

 

A meditation on the artist’s relationship with their home, the project encourages reflection on identity, memory and our contemporary obsession with nostalgia. As the world marches ever forward into the digital age, City of Nothing stands as a reminder of the importance of community and the risk of social alienation.