‘One of our responsibilities as human people is to find ways to enter into reciprocity with the more-than-human world. We can do it through gratitude, through ceremony…..in everyday acts of practical reverence’. (Kimmerer 2020).
| Project Title | Down to Earth |
| Location | Fox Hill woodland, Wokingham |
| Date | 5th October 2024 |
THE PROJECT
The Down to Earth project asked – in an increasingly screen-mediated age – whether a woodland installation could encourage a sense of grounding and embodied experience with the natural world. In his book, Nature Matrix, Robert Pyle coins the phrase ‘extinction of experience’, highlighting his concerns on the loss of human-nature interactions.
With the potential for isolation in contemporary living, the project aimed to facilitate reconnection with nature and with community. To this end, members of the public were invited to engage with a local area of woodland, Fox Hill. This social engagement comprised two interactive events – a workshop and a public installation of the artist’s work.
Fifty-two sculptural pieces – such as basketry forms and hangings – were created for participants to install in a designated area of the woodland. The workshop group created a collective piece, also included in the installation event. With sustainability at its core, these pieces comprised only natural materials, incorporating locally foraged elements, such as grasses, found branches, pebbles and even clay. Some of the final pieces included the hand-written responses to a survey about the woodland carried out in an earlier study.
Thirty people, aged between 8 and 80, arrived on the day and together created their own outdoor ‘gallery’. This interactive collaboration transformed the site into a temporary space for reflection and connection, perhaps encouraging an appreciation of the natural world; a reminder of the potential for the ‘extinction of experience’ in our rapidly changing world, as interaction with natural spaces declines.
THE ARTIST
Predominantly a printmaker, learning to create the basketry and woven forms was a challenge and a deep engagement with materiality.
This ancient woodland has been my muse for the entirety of these MA studies. From a walking installation of films, to hand-written responses to a survey eliciting locals’ personal feelings about the area, I have developed a thorough understanding of the place and its beings.
Throughout this module I have been collaborating with a poet. Working closely as the project developed, her responses to my work afforded new insights, which in turn influenced my thinking. We continue to work together.
As a direct result of these studies, I go forward into two exciting local projects, working closely with young people, and encompassing these values.
The Workshop
Incorporating hand-written responses to a survey of local people into some of the pieces was an important inclusion, a form of reciprocity
Scenes from the woodland installation
Sculptures in situ
Some of the sculptural pieces made for the woodland event.
