Interested in the folk tradition as a carrier of cultural memory, the artist has created a soundtrack for the exhibition which imagines folk music as rediscovered in a dystopian future, where humankind attempts to uncover social histories by piecing together digital artefacts.

Drawing on tropes from folk and dub music, the artist references these genres for their tendencies toward renewal and reinvention. Dub music uses technology to create futuristic versions of older reggae songs, whilst the folk canon twists traditional compositions to tell contemporary stories: similarly in Latham’s soundtrack, vocal chops rework old folk songs into new lyrical possibilities, drum machines pound out ceremonial procession marches, whilst ambient interludes reference the choral and organ fugues of religious music in a palette of melancholic futurism.

Across a body of work that spans painting, print, drawing, installation and sound, ‘Future Histories’ sets out to question the received modes of cultural memory and history making by centring stories that are often marginalised from social history and asking us to consider what the future history of North Devon’s agricultural community will be?