Despite being just twelve square kilometres in size, Heathrow is the second-busiest airport in the world. In 2017, more than seventy-five million passengers flowed through its terminals, with one flight taking off or landing roughly every forty-five seconds. For the forseeable future (until at least an economic or climate apocalypse) these numbers will only increase. There are six other London airports, but only one Heathrow.
The airport consists of two runways and five terminal buildings, containing more than thirty miles of conveyer belt, six thousand CCTV cameras, three miles of subterranean tunnel, and forty-five thousand access hatches. It is arguably the principal route into and out of the country. For many millions this sterile environment will be the only part of the UK they see in their entire lives.
The place is full of grey space, in-between space. Although it stands cose to the southern tip of Colne Valley Regional Park, the airport is surrounded by speakers which broadcast the sounds of animals in distress to keep birds and wildlife away.
Residency Book
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This A6, saddle-stitched booklet collects together the images, impressions and stories that make up Heathrow Airport. It is the second in the Liminal Residency series. There will only ever be 200 numbered copies in existence, available at a flexible price of £5 or more. All proceeds are used to fund future residencies.
Participating Artists
Born in the south of England in 1962, Christine Donovan is a settled Irish Traveller, and well knows the liminality of that situation. A long time fan of the Situationist International, she writes psychogeographical novels, and her first novel, Jump Derry, which concerns the Troubles, parkour, emos and Irish dancing, won the International Rubery Book Award in 2011. She also has a long interest in Victorian anarchism in England and Europe. Christine is a housewife with a husband and four grown up children. She blogs at Mostly, I Just Walk Around.
Ed Garland won the New Welsh Writing Awards 2018 with his essay collection Earwitness: A Search for Sonic Understanding in Stories, which is available here. He is completing a PhD thesis entitled Sonic Experience in Contemporary Fiction at Aberystwyth University. He is on Twitter: @EdGarland9.
Dawn Hart lives in south London and writes both poetry and prose. Her fascination with liminal spaces led her to be writer in residence at Oval Tube station in spring 2018. She is currently studying for an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Brighton. She was runner up in Brighton and Hove’s Art Council’s poetry competition in 2017. Some of her poetry is currently on display at Hot Yoga Wimbledon where her poetry is married with the paintings of Bahar Boostani in an exhibition entitled “Where Worlds Meet”.
As a writer and performer Sean Wai Keung has worked with organisations such as the National Theatre of Scotland, National Library of Scotland and Apples & Snakes. His debut poetry pamphlet you are mistaken won the inaugural Rialto Open Pamphlet Competition 2016 and was named a Poetry School “book of the year”. He holds a Creative Writing degree from Roehampton University, London and an MA in Poetry from the University of East Anglia. In 2018 he released how to cook, a food-poem pamphlet, with Speculative Books. He is on Twitter: @SeanWaiKeung.