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JOIN US IN BACKLANDS

We are artists exploring, recording and interpreting isolated, post-industrial landscapes of North West England.

Join us as we celebrate the legacy landscape created by the world’s first industrial revolution.

Events

Manchester Art Fair

21-23 November 2025

Manchester Central: Stand 830

BACKLANDS is back. Featuring John Skinner’s interpretations of the North West industrial legacy landscape.

Book Tickets

Explore.

We have been walking and exploring these spaces for years.

Miles upon miles of hidden lands isolated by pioneering roads, rail and waterways connecting the first industrial region to the world.

From Ice Age Chatt Moss abutting ‘Cottonopolis’ in the east, to Wigg Island at the western mouth of the Atlantic Gateway.

BACKLANDS belongs to us all.

Record.

We’re taking time to record this always evolving, always surprising landscape.

We’re immersing ourselves in BACKLANDS, looking and listening closely as we capture sounds, stills and moving images – origins, places, voices and faces.

We’re creating mementos of lands that will be different tomorrow.

Interpret.

BACKLANDS inspires artistic interpretation.

Our collaborations encompass film, music, poetry, painting and photography.

We want to shed light on this story, so everyone can engage in the fascinating past and exciting future of this landscape.

Contact us for painting enquiries.

Contact Us

A rural road winding through countryside under cloudy sky, with leafless trees and a telephone pole.

Waterfront landscape with a wide river or lake, green grassy banks, and industrial buildings with smokestacks in the distance under a cloudy sky

A painting of a rural landscape under a dark, cloudy sky, with a utility pole and power lines on the right side, a dirt road, green grass, and trees in the background.

Nighttime landscape with dark sky, watching over a river or wetland area with industrial buildings and cooling towers in the distance, illuminated by faint lights.

Watercolor painting of a rural scene with a wooden gate, overgrown grass and bushes, a utility pole with wires, and a cloudy sky.

Painting of a highway overpass with cars, power lines overhead, green foliage, and a cloudy sky in the background.

A watercolor painting of an industrial landscape at sunset. In the foreground, there's a grassy field with a large electricity pylon. In the background, there are cooling towers and a smokestack at a power plant, with a cloudy sky.

A rural scene with a dirt road flanked by dry, brown bushes and green grass. Overhead, dark, cloudy sky with some blue patches. Wooden utility poles with power lines run along the road, with distant hills in the background.

Poetry.

Music.

Inspired by the captivating imagery and surprising found sounds of BACKLANDS.

Contemporary musicians James Girling (guitar), Andy Scott (saxophone) and Carmel Smickersgill (electronics) created a hypnotic score for a memorable one-off performance at Liverpool’s legendary Bluecoat arts centre in November 2023.

Check out these two extracts, Phosphorescence and Calm Panning, for a flavour of the evening’s performance. If you can, listen in stereo for the full experience.