Trading Zones
(2018 –  Present)

Trading Zones examines global financial flows, with a particular focus on ‘offshore’ finance. While this topic has occassionally been photographed before, Trading Zones departs from the tendency to view tax and secrecy havens in isolation, instead seeing the ‘offshore’ as something which is only possible because of a corresponding ‘onshore’ to which it relates.

In the case of Trading Zones this is crystalised in the relationship between the City of London, a medieval vestige turned financial hub in the heart of the Greater London, and the Bailiwick of Jersey, a semi-autonomous crown dependency turned financial hub in the English Channel, where I was also Archisle artist in residence for six months in 2018.

Trading Zones examines this relationship through a deep dive into the two jurisdiction’s histories, institutions, cultures and practices, exploring how this particularly relational area of high capitalism has slowly evolved, by design and by accident, over a thousand years. The ultimate aim of the project is to offer a visual exploration which moves beyond the clichéd depictions of offshore centres as palm fringed islands where nefarious deeds take place, and towards one which is as nuanced and complex as the subject deserves.

Trading Zones comprises:

= 500 digital photographs and composite photographs
= 55 diagrams of financial instruments, structures and organisations
= Approximately 300 A4 pages of research materials
= Various items of ephemera related to finance
= 20 minute two screen video installation