Artist’s notes

So pleased to be part of the Woods to Where Else project. The first meet up was on Saturday and it was really exciting to meet the other artists involved. The day consisted of an introduction to the project and each other; a stimulating talk by Mavernie Cunningham introducing some concepts to think about, a long walk – being a slow walker I was in part responsible for the programme overrun – and a chance to share ideas around current practice or recent projects.

Kings Wood (Challock) is a completely man-made environment and is run as a commercial concern by the Forestry Commission.

Info from the Forestry Commission website: King’s Wood is 588 hectares of mixed conifer and broadleaf woodland. It is defined as PAWS (plantation on ancient woodland site), which means it has been under woodland cover since 1600. It is a stronghold for sweet chestnut coppicing in Kent and home of the SVCP (Stour Valley Creative Partnership).

A fascinating fact about Challock wood is that the parish church of Challock is dedicated to Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian, twin brothers, early Christian martyrs and doctors, most famously known for the “Miracle of the Black Leg”. Lots of info on the internet including here. And I’ve just discovered a link to Beuys (and Giacometti) and a prescient piece he made in 1974, in which the Twin Towers are called Cosmas and Damian. See In Case Something Different Happens, Joseph Beuys and 9/11 by David Levi Strauss.

Very excited to be one of the artists working on the Woods to Where else project in Kings Wood with Stour Valley Creative Partnerships. This is a research and development project with a mini residency, working with Mavernie Cunningham, to explore the“ecological tension between nature and cultivation and to examine and question the identity of the woods as a purely natural and harmonious environment.”

Right up my street.

Eek, I’ve had a proposal for a paper accepted for a symposium at Coventry university in December. I’ll be presenting my film Encountering Place in the context of the symposium title Drawing Conversations 2: Body, Space, Object.

Slightly nervous now about writing the actual paper as I haven’t done anything academic for a while.

I am really pleased that the film I made during the residency and screened at the Festival will feature as part of the FiliArt programme of exhibitions, performances and screenings during the upcoming (Feminism in London) FiLia conference on 14-15 October 2017 at the Institute of Education in London.

Playing around with stencilling onto Chinese-design wrapping paper. These are quite small experiments – approx. A5 and A4 size; thinking about culture as a kind of imprint.