James Finlay
Referendum
Referendum is a photographic series that explores the tangible and intangible border along the 100-mile geographical stretch between England and Scotland from Berwick-upon- Tweed to Gretna Green. Referendum contributes to the ongoing political and economic debate on the Union between England and Scotland.
This landscape is considered in three ways: the sweep of grand romantic vistas; the minutiae of border ephemera rendered through the scientific gaze of the electron microscope; and the accumulation of political rhetoric within the historical and media documentation connected to this space.
The Anglo-Scottish border has a history of skirmishes; battles and wars long before the Acts of Union in 1707’. Leading up to 18 September 2014, a decision on the future of this 300-year- old relationship will be debated through daily combative political, economic and cultural rhetoric between the two nations. In the culmination to this rhetorical battle of the Union, Scottish residents will vote on the referendum question, ‘Should Scotland be an independent country? Yes or No.’ Landscape is ever present and ever constant: whatever the political outcome, the landscape will remain.