Hartlands

Part quest narrative, part cultural investigation, HARTLANDS explores our growing collective fascination with myth and ritual.

In September 2021 a lone white fallow deer was shot having spent hours, stray and in distress, running through the streets of Bootle in Merseyside. Reading of this killing, Jade Fitton's interest was aroused by the image of the white deer - the white hart in particular. The white hart - a mature white red deer - holds deep resonance in Britain. It is there the story of our countryside past and present; it appears as a symbol throughout our history (the emblem of King Richard II); and it arrives again and again in our myths and folklore. Jade embarked on a journey through the British Isles to learn all there is to know of the deer. From the Royal park of Richmond to the snowclad hills of Wales; from the ancient site of Sutton Hoo on the Suffolk coast to the rich pine forests of the highlands, Jade was there - waiting, watching, listening - often sleeping in her car. Beyond the cultural romanticism of this beast, deer are now an environmental problem. In parallel to her journey across Britain, Jade undertakes to sit the Deer Stalking Certificate (DSC1), allowing her to legally participate in culling. Moving and insightful, Hartlands follows Jade over a full year on her quest - a hunt develops into something akin to obsession - to discover the truth behind one the country's most magnificent mammals.