Acting in the Middle: A Glossary of Encounter — David Eckersley

Description

David Eckersley’s exhibition Acting in the Middle: A Glossary of Encounter is a deep dive into the layered histories and fragile ecosystems of the North Derbyshire peatlands. Research began in 2022, when Eckersley moved to Sheffield and started exploring Kinder Scout — ‘moon‑like, other‑worldly, like no landscape I had ever seen before’. Traversing summit and bog, Kinder Scout’s terrain is rugged yet delicate, and the first showing of the resulting body of work is aptly situated in the basement gallery of the University of Huddersfield. As David walks me through the cluster of subterranean rooms, I feel I’m being led beneath the surface of a site I’d never realised was so stratified. Shimmering, large‑scale prints of heather pinned to wooden dams — wide slats of rough wood positioned on the gallery floor, with the prints draped and unfurling — offer glimpses of the microscopic detail and careful presentation evident throughout. Artefacts, archival materials, maps, experiments, and collected mosses and rocks are displayed with equal care, alongside photographic prints that range from archival to ephemeral.