The Happenings artist development commission
Arkadia is a large-scale installation by artists Stephanie Rushton & Mally Mallinson, commissioned as part of The Happenings 2021. Installed at Longton Exchange (Sept – Oct 2021), the work is formed from polystyrene, paint, wood, Perspex, plants and construction materials; with digital photography printed on translucent window vinyl.
Inspired by dystopian narratives found within science- and speculative fiction, Arkadia explores the post-human, our relationship to the natural world, the environmental impact of mass consumerism and the potential consequences of climate change. Among the motifs are “THE GOLDEN FLEECED”: a golden shopping trolley suspended in a tree, acting as a replacement for shop signage; and “SKIP OF FOOLS”: a skeleton pushes a skip containing the last remnants of Earth’s precious plant life up a mound of architectural debris.
The windows of Longton Exchange displayed edge-to-edge imagery of entangled, withered vegetation — a visual metaphor for the entanglement of human culture and nature in crisis. Arkadia invited passersby to reflect on consumerism, ecological collapse and the possibility of renewal, in a city built on industrial heritage and regeneration.
Supported by Longton Exchange Shopping Centre and local fabrication experts M&M Signs & Graphics Ltd., the installation demonstrated how public art can transform everyday urban retail spaces into sites of reflection, provocation and aesthetic encounter.