Arbib, Adrian
Ausstellungskatalog, Bath, The Walcot Chapel Gallery, 17.-28.02.2009; Bath, Bath Central Library, 01.-08.03.2009.
Oxford
The Bardwell Press
2009
84 p.
hb.
71 duotone images
Buch, Katalog
At the time of the protest the UK Conservative Government’s “largest road building programme since the Romans” was in full swing under John Major, and set to destroy much of the British countryside. In response, a rising tide of non-violent protest emerged across the country. Armed with little more than rope harnesses and mobile phones the size of bricks, the protesters were faced with often violent private security forces in muddy fields, high in the trees and even underground. Adrian Arbib lived on site photographing the events. In so doing he captured all aspects of life on the protest. His work is a unique record of an important moment in British social history, when a political movement changed government transport policy. Today, as the current Government’s airport expansion programme is being rolled out in a similarly undemocratic fashion, accompanied by anger and protest, it can seem that history is repeating itself. Today, though, draconian public order laws now threaten to criminalise law-abiding citizens seeking to have their say. Protest is harder today, and freedom more elusive. Solsbury Hill reminds us of where we have come from, and what freedom means.- In Bath, the Batheaston bypass was set to destroy the ancient monument and much loved beauty spot of Solsbury Hill. Coinciding with the 15th anniversary of the 1994 Solsbury Hill road protest, one of the first major anti-roads protests of the 1990s, the Bardwell Press are proud to publish this book of photographs by Adrian Arbib, which get to the heart of the protest as never before. Most of these images have never been published before. (Publisher’s text. Address: Publisher’s address: The Bardwell Press. 6 Bardwell Road, Oxford, OX2 6SW, UK, email info@bardwell-press.co.uk, tel. 01865 423 493, fax 01865 510 996).