From issue: #17 The Graduate Issue 2022
Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete
Anna Sellen often works autobiographically, combining her personal history with research to encompass wider political and cultural debates. In her series Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete, she revisits her family’s experiences of the Soviet Union between 1952 and 1986. Using photography, poetry, oral history, archives, diaries and the physical space of the bunker, Sellen considers the impact of political decisions, state-driven silencing and misinformation on people’s lives and identities from one generation to the next. This work evolved from her earlier project, Bunker Diaries, which won the Shutter Hub Portfolio Award at FORMAT 2021. Sellen was prompted to expand Bunker Diaries when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Drip by drip, we are fed with concrete is also available as an immersive virtual reality exhibition.
Based on the west coast of Wales, Anna Sellen is a photographer and multidisciplinary artist working across photography, video, sound and text. Sellen graduated from the University for the Creative Arts/Open College of the Arts with a BA in Photography in 2022. She is currently artist-in-residence at the Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker. Sellen is also a founding member of INK, a collective of six UK-based image-makers.
