My Future History

During the COVID19 lockdown, artist Charlotte Chapman has worked with young people from Aylesham to create a series of images, documenting their village, it’s tradition and the social interactions within the community. Presented as an exhibition of black & white photographs taken by six young women – Princesses from the Court of Aylesham’s Carnival – taken over 21 days during the lockdown, as carnivals and pageants become a thing of the past, ‘My Future History’ captured the fascinating and fragile history of Aylesham Carnival over their many years as one of Kent’s largest carnivals.

With the project offering an insight into the personal and community values of everyone involved in it’s running, as part of ‘My Future History’ five young women and girls from the current Court of Aylesham visited Folkestone to give a formal curtsy at St Mark & St. Fotini Greek Orthodox Church, a traditional practice done by village courts to thank people in the community.

Gallery Image Credits:
[1]: Aylesham Princess
[2, 5]: Tomas Poblete
[2, 3]: Nina Shen-Poblete

Charlotte Chapman is an arts practitioner working across participatory arts, education and development. Inspired by everything from the mundane to the extraordinary, the justice to the injustice, and the brilliant to the terrible, Chapman moved to Folkestone just over three years ago to be closer to family. Although working primarily as an artist, as well as serving as the Development Officer for South East at Voluntary Arts, Chapman’s practice also lies in community engaged workshops. Fascinated by the ways in which connections between people happen when they collectively create, Chapman believes that artwork and creation is always secondary to the experiences that happen within a space.

‘TWF’ (This Week In Folkestone) is an archival project charting contemporary countercultures from the margins: experiences and creative expressions of people who have been left outside of the dominant cultural radar. ‘TWF’ is interested in all that is underground, underrated, and absent, putting a spotlight on diverse cultures that are under threat of disappearing due to patterns of urban morphology, economic, social & political structural changes, as well as the developing tastes, behaviours, influences and values of our time.

As part of the project, a series of six mini documentary projects were commissioned by artists with a vision for all that is left behind, invisible and emerging. The other artists who participated in this project are: Charlotte Chapman, Ewan Golder, Ann Morgan, Tomas Poblete and Ernst Fischer.