All images © Tessa Bunney
Tessa Bunney got in touch the other day to share some images from her Home Work series which focus on domestic labour in the suburbs and villages in and around Hanoi, Vietnam. In her statement about the project, she writes:
"Currently, around 75% of the population of Vietnam are farmers. As Vietnam moves towards urbanisation, the country’s agricultural labour force faces the prospect of losing its land to urban projects - and its way of life.
With Vietnam’s growing population also making less land available for farmers to work, families unable to sustain themselves are turning to the creation of various products in rural areas. These ‘craft’ villages have become the meeting place between rural and urban, agriculture and industry.
During the last decade, along with rapid national economic development many craft villages have increased production up to five fold through small-scale industrial development. However, the consequence of this shift is increased waste and environmental pollution with the resources of the landscape becoming overused.
My work draws attention to observing details which we usually let slip by unnoticed and aims to contribute to the ongoing debate about the changing nature of rural life".
Home Work is currently on show at The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate, UK until 8 November and then will then be touring to Light House, Wolverhampton, UK (27 Nov 2009 to 13 Jan 2010).
Since graduating from West Surrey College of Art and Design in 1988, Tessa has worked as a documentary photographer undertaking personal projects and portraits and features photography for various magazines including Observer Life, Guardian Weekend and The Sunday Times magazine as well as a wide range of commissions and residencies nationally and internationally. In 2004, she completed a M.A. in Photography at De Montfort University, Leicester.
Previous projects include Moor and Dale, which was exhibited and published by The Mercer Art Gallery, Harrogate and shown at various venues in the UK including Hereford Photography Festival, 2004. Lamb, commissioned by The Culture Company, was shown at Impressions Gallery, York, in 2000. Eat Better, Eat British received an Honourable Mention in the Leica Oskar Barnack Award and was shown at Rencontres Internationales de la Photographie, Arles, France in 2000.
She is represented by the Klompching Gallery in New York and is currently artist in residence at Newby Hall, a private Georgian family home in North Yorkshire. She will also be artist in residence in Jyväskylä, Central Finland in early 2010 as part of Connections North, International Residency Exchange Project organised by Art Connections.
