Group exhibition title: Are You Seeing What I’m Seeing
16 – 25 June 2022
Art + Design Gallery, University of Hertfordshire

oil on canvas, miniature light bulb, electrical transformer, 167 x 482.44 cm





Ghost Acres is a collaboration between Alison Dalwood and Dr Keith G. Davies FLS FRSB, Associate Professor and Applied Nematologist at the School of Life and Medical Sciences, University of Hertfordshire.
The term “ghost acreage,” first introduced by ecologist Georg Borgström, describes the displaced consumption of resources on which Western society depends. This concept highlights the vast, unseen lands that are consumed and depleted to sustain urban populations, yet remain invisible to those who depend on them.
Each panel in Ghost Acres represents an estimate of the land required to support a single Western urban dweller: cropland, pastureland, woodland, and other land. The proportions and statistical acreage of these “ghost acres” are visualised in relation to each category of land use. A miniature light bulb symbolises the urban dweller, signifying their dependence on these distant resources.
The work focuses on endangered ghost resources—outsourced to distant lands—and the ongoing cycles of past and present exploitation. Ghost Acres serves as a metaphor, drawing from ecological science to make visible the hidden infrastructure of consumption that supports modern urban life.
In 1950, approximately 30% of the global population lived in urban areas, while 70% lived rurally. By 2011, this balance had shifted to 50:50, and by 2050, it is projected to reverse entirely. The concept of ghost acres underscores the reliance of urban populations on agricultural systems far removed from their immediate surroundings.
Dr Keith Davies, who frequently visited New Delhi and other major cities to discuss food security through crop protection, became increasingly aware of the rural-urban divide. In a discussion about the intersections between art and science, the term ghost acres emerged. It became evident that the word ghost carried different meanings in scientific and artistic contexts, and this collaboration grew from that conversation.
The concept is referenced in Garrett Hardin’s Living Within Limits: Ecology, Economics, and Population Taboos (OUP, 1993):
“Since most of the acreage the average citizen ‘occupies’ is out of sight and out of mind, the agricultural geographer Georg Borgström suggested in 1961 that we call it ‘ghost acreage.’ The essential life of an educated urban dweller, from birth to death, is lived out on ghost acreage.”
Estimated land use per person:
- Cropland: 1.9 acres
- Pastureland: 2.4 acres
- Woodland: 2.6 acres
- Other land: 2.2 acres
- Dwelling of an urban Manhattan resident: 435 square feet
This project seeks to make ghost acreage tangible, fostering an awareness of the city dweller’s dependence on distant lands. Hardin writes:
“Since he is deficient in meaningful experiences with the sources of his being.” (Living Within Limits, p. 123)
Four locations are represented in Ghost Acres, each charting the statistical acreage of land use categories. The series of works explores the transition of light from day to night, the fading of illumination, and the passage of time. Darkening expanses suggest the movement from daylight into shadow, reinforcing a sense of dependence on unseen landscapes.
Through these representations, Ghost Acres examines natural processes such as light, shadow, growth, decay, emergence, and dissolution. These elements highlight the shifting nature of land use and resource consumption, prompting reflection on the unseen landscapes that sustain urban existence.

oil on canvas, miniature light bulb, electrical transformer, 167 x 115 cm

oil on canvas, 167 x 126 cm

oil on canvas, 167 x 100 cm
