-1°50 West

A journey tracing a single line of longitude the entire length of England.

In a country often divided by political polarisation and identity politics, this work turns toward tangible human connection. It resists the noise of a manufactured culture war in favour of expression that grows instinctively from people themselves. Not grand statements, just small acts, rites of passage, routine, gathering, conversation. It considers how meaning and purpose emerge through ritual, ceremony, and the quiet poetry of everyday life.

Stretching nearly 400 miles, this invisible line unites together ancient monuments and urban sprawl, it passes on through remote moorlands and forgotten industrial cities. Eventually it crosses the sea along a centuries old pilgrimage route to a tidal island.

Along the way the work encounters volunteer coastguards, spiritualist churches, onlookers, astronomers, neopagan ceremonies, psychic mediums, and devoted pilgrims. The line interweaves an ever changing sequence of ritual and routine, drifting from dawn rites at Avebury to collective prayer in Birmingham, from baptism to the chaos of medieval sport.

The simplicity of this straight line stands in sharp contrast to the complex, intertwined lives of those who live along it. As the landscape shifts and evolves, it forges identity and shapes community. Both a literal and symbolic spine, this vertical axis physically dissects the country in half whilst drawing its communities together in common identity.