Rebecca Chesney

Conditions at Present

Tents provide shelter in times of crisis or displacement, but they perform a very different role at music festivals where it is more common for cheap tents to be discarded than taken away by their temporary inhabitants.

With the growing practice of charities collecting discarded tents for reuse, more tents are left behind as their users’ consciousness is eased by the idea they’ll go to ‘a good home’, without thinking about the social and environmental costs that produce them so cheaply.

Using the discarded fabric, in collaboration with FWRD (Festival Waste Reclamation and Distribution) Together, Rebecca Chesney’s field of windsocks serve as an indicator of current conditions; a barometer of the climate crisis of our own making.

Conditions at Present is a collaboration with the 2024 Harewood Biennial and was on show at Harewood House until 20th October 2024.

Conditions at Present is available as a touring artwork, see here for more information.

To hear more about this work, listen to Rebecca’s conversation with Dr Mila Burcikova and Amber Butchart in Episode 6 of the Cloth Cultures podcast, Season 3.

This project was co-commissioned with The Super Slow Way.