O G S Crawford and the Avebury Papers

The Avebury Papers is a four-year UK Research & Innovation funded project, led by the Universities of Bristol and York to digitise, investigate and disseminate the multimedia archives of Avebury’s Neolithic origins and current investigations. One of the spin-offs is the creation of two art installations which will be on show at the Southampton City Art Gallery until 17 October.

Oneiric Archaeologies by Gayle Chong Kwan (above) incorporates sound, tactile sculptures and ritual and social dreaming to explore and understand Avebury’s Neolithic landscape, whilst The Bluest Eye by Kiely Tihngang (top) invites viewers to ‘consider the ripples of migration, pseudoscience, history and myth in the making of place’.

Providing a more conventional set of images is O G S Crawford, one of the great figures in the Field Club and world archaeology in the early years of the 20th century. Crawford pioneered the use of aerial photography in the company of Alexander Keiller of Avebury and the exhibition shows how their work changed our perception of the prehistoric landscape.

The displays also feature Crawford’s photographs of war-torn Southampton, recording aspects of some of the thousands of buildings destroyed in the Second World War. Pictured above is the golden pineapple (Crawford called it a fir cone) from the roof of All Saints Church, lying on the pavement after the massive air raid of 30 November, 1940. The church was ruined, the pineapple survived.