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Sam Contis: Overpass

Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Overpass explores the experience of moving through the English countryside via centuries-old footpaths. Sam Contis captures black-and-white photographs of stiles—wooden and stone structures that allow passage over walls and fences, symbolising freedom of movement and the history of land enclosure. The images depict stiles as sculptural forms, some intact, others decaying or hidden, acting as markers that invite reflection on boundaries and the shaping of the natural environment. An essay by Daisy Hildyard offers historical and ecological context, connecting the work to wider discussions on land ownership and nationalism.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book will appeal to readers interested in contemporary photography, British landscape history, and ecological discourse. It suits those reflective about national identity, land use, and how humans interact with nature.

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Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Overpass is about what it means to move through the landscape. Walking along a vast network of centuries-old footpaths through the English countryside, artist Sam Contis focuses on stiles, the simple structures that offer a means of passage over walls and fences and allow public access through privately owned land.

In her immersive sequences of black-and-white photographs, they become repeating sculptural forms in the landscape, invitations to free movement on one hand and a reminder of the history of enclosure on the other. Made from wood and stone, each unique, they appear as markers pointing the way forward, or decaying and half-hidden by the undergrowth.

An essay by writer Daisy Hildyard contextualises 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 invites us to reflect on how we cross boundaries, who owns space, and the ways we have shaped the natural environment and how we might shape it in the future.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781597115391

Publisher: Aperture

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 November 2022

Country: United States

Imprint: Aperture

Illustration: 75 duotone images

Contributors:

  • Photographs by Sam Contis
  • Text by Daisy Hildyard
  • Designed by Julian Bittiner

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 23.0mm

Width: 177.0mm

Height: 260.0mm

Weight: 639g

Pages: 192

About the Author

Sam Contis (b. 1982) lives in California. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Barbican Centre, London; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Carré d’Art, Nîmes; and MoMA, New York. She is the recipient of a 2022 Guggenheim Fellowship and the author of Deep Springs (2017) and Day Sleeper (2020). Daisy Hildyard (b. 1984) is author of two novels—Emergency (2022) and Hunters in the Snow (2013)—and one work of nonfiction, The Second Body (2017). She lives in North Yorkshire.

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