Sam Contis

Sam Contis: Overpass

Photographed during walks along a vast network of centuries-old footpaths through the English countryside, Overpass presents a meditative series of black-and-white photographs by artist Sam Contis.

Her focus is on the stile-a simple structure that offers a means of passage over walls and fences and allows public access through privately owned land. Made from wood and stone, each unique, stiles appear as markers pointing the way forward, or in decay and half-hidden by the undergrowth. An essay by writer Daisy Hildyard contextualizes this body of work within histories of the British landscape, and contemporary ecological discourses. In an age of rising nationalism and a renewed insistence on borders, Overpass is about what it means to move through the landscape. It serves as an invitation to reflect on how we cross boundaries, who owns space, the ways we have shaped the natural environment-and how we may shape it in the future.