What could Portsmouth look like in 100 years? Artists imagine the city’s future
What will life in Portsmouth look like in 2126? And how will sustainability, rebuilding and social change reshape the place we call home?
These are the questions at the heart of 2126: What If?, Aspex Portsmouth's Summer exhibition bringing together three artists connected to Portsmouth to imagine the city 100 years into the future.
Created as part of Portsmouth 100 celebrations, the exhibition transforms the gallery into a space for speculation, storytelling and hope, inviting local people to reflect on the city’s past, present and future through contemporary art.
Rather than focusing on dystopian futures, the exhibition asks what could happen if communities, creativity and sustainability were placed at the centre of Portsmouth’s future.
The exhibition features new works by Alice Hume, Matt Westbrook and María de la O Garrido, three artists whose practices explore identity, place, community and imagined futures in very different ways.
A Portsmouth artist growing flax across the city
For Portsmouth-based textile artist Alice Hume, the future starts by looking back at traditional ways of making. Over the past four years, Hume has been growing flax in urban spaces across Portsmouth as part of a long-term project exploring sustainable textiles and reconnecting communities with the origins of materials like linen.
Working from her Portsmouth studio using handlooms, including looms built by her father, Hume creates woven works using natural and repurposed fibres, embracing slow, sustainable processes in response to a fast-moving world.
Her work in 2126: What If? reflects on how future cities might become more environmentally conscious, locally connected and rooted in care, craft and shared knowledge.
Alice Hume, exhibiting artist, said: “I am delighted to have been selected for the ‘2126: What If?’ exhibition and it’s been so inspiring to share ideas and work with artists Maria and Matt. Born in Portsmouth, I am excited for visitors to see new work and to also imagine what my hometown will look like in 100 years. I hope visitors are able to take away and be part of a slower textile movement through sustainability and community.”
Imagining Portsmouth through memory and future landscapes
Portsmouth-born and Birmingham-based artist Matt Westbrook uses the South Coast landscape as inspiration for imagined future worlds that feel strangely familiar. Westbrook draws from his family’s naval history in Portsmouth, his collages use archival imagery often inspired by Portsmouth’s shoreline, urban spaces and evolving identity. His contribution to 2126: What If? explores memory, place and the tension between the real and the imagined. In reconfiguring and disrupting Portsmouth’s geography and built environment, Westbrook suggests how the city could evolve over the next century, and what traces of today’s Portsmouth might remain.
Matt Westbrook, exhibiting artist, said: “Thirty years after leaving Portsmouth for the Midlands, I’m thrilled to return to my home city to exhibit at Aspex. Time away from Portsmouth has made me realise how completely unique the city is. For the 2126: What if?’ exhibition, I’ve chosen to explore the theme of ‘lost architecture’, and have researched buildings and structures that were erased by war, urban sprawl, and the passing of time. Being away for so long has allowed me to see the changes many may have got used to. With the new sea defences and seafront promenade going up, Hilsea lido getting a refresh and new housing being planned in Tipner, it feels like a time when the city is going through a renewal. The work presented in the exhibition imagines a future where the city continues to be built on top of fragments of its past.”
Art, resistance and bright community futures
Originally from Spain and now having made Portsmouth her home, María de la O Garrido works across photography, collage, sculpture, video and performance. Activating archives through her socially-engaged practice, Garrido reveals untold stories, and works with communities to imagine new futures during times of political and social uncertainty.
Believing strongly in the power art has to create connection and collective resistance, Garrido’s work for 2126: What If? doesn’t present a fixed vision of the future, but instead encourages new ways of thinking about it. Her multilayered installations, film and photography propose mechanisms for finding ‘Yellow’; which she describes as synonymous with hope, joy, unity and resistance. Using imaginary machines and speculative design, Garrido invites viewers to reflect on where they might discover or apply ‘Yellow’ within their own present and future.
María de la O Garrido, exhibiting artist, said: “I am looking forward to visitors exploring the new work I’ve developed for the summer exhibition at Aspex. Together with Alice and Matt, we are imagining and exploring possibilities for the future. I work with yellow not simply as a colour, but as a symbol, something similar to poetry, aiming to be accessible, free and for everyone. Yellow in my work symbolises a kind of hope and a form of resistance. It can change shape and even colour for everyone, so visitors will hopefully understand what yellow means to them and embrace it.”
Joanne Bushnell, Director of Aspex Portsmouth, said: “Portsmouth is a city with an incredible history of resilience, creativity and community spirit, but 2126: What If? asks people to look forward and dream. This exhibition is about giving people space to imagine hopeful futures for our city; futures shaped by creativity, sustainability and connection. The artists each bring deeply personal perspectives linked to Portsmouth, making this exhibition feel rooted in the city while also asking important questions about the world we want to build together.”
2126: What If? is on display at Aspex Portsmouth until 6 September and is free to visit.