SelfScapes by Joanna Sperryn-Jones

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The image captions are recorded at the end of the publication rather than in the text. On any page verbal and visual content may originate from different participants. This approach is in keeping with the SelfScapes ethos of sharing and collaboration. 3

SelfScapes is a new research cluster at York St John University and refers to the relationship between self and its environment. The aim of this research cluster is to investigate both the body and place as sites for interconnected experiences and how this might be mediated through a range of media. York St John University and the Forestry England staff at Dalby Forest had already established a good working relationship so we decided to base the first SelfScapes events at Dalby Forest. Petra Young, who leads the arts programme for Forestry England at Dalby Forest, gave us the working space and support for the events. SelfScapes was awarded internal research funding from York St John University in 2017 as a means to bring a group of staff and students together to work within a research cluster. The cluster was initiated by Dr Joanna Sperryn-Jones, Mark Adams, Sally Taylor and Dr Christina Kolaiti. The subject of SelfScapes emerged as a common theme from conversations on our individual art practices. SelfScapes’ focus on the relationship between self and environment seemed like an appropriate starting point for our common interests, which are embodied by an experimental approach to image making and developing ideas. In addition, the form of the event (shared making followed by discussion and an exhibition) is of common interest to us as a means of disseminating and developing artistic research.

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The main ethos of the SelfScapes research cluster is its

As an integral part of the events we mixed group discussions

non-hierarchical approach to making art. Our aim in bringing

on initial exploration and experimentation as a means to

together a diverse range of students, academics and artists

jointly develop ideas. Many of the discussions took place on

from fine art, illustration, photography and other disciplines,

the move – walking through the forest in groups. Our ideas

was to create an environment which facilitated democratic,

were therefore formed collectively by responding both

multidisciplinary collaboration. Participants were local, national

to the exterior spaces and to each other, along the forest

and international, which extended the range of perspectives in

paths. Local, national and international perspectives were

viewing and experiencing the forest site.

therefore embedded within discourse relating to the specific nature of the places and spaces we encountered.

The emphasis was on developing a community of artistic research, not on individual outcomes. In other words, the idea

The event supported students to exhibit and discuss their

wasn’t to do the research independently and then interrogate

work and ideas on an equal footing to academic staff and

the outcomes but instead to discuss the research in process in

established artists. Rather than presenting pre-formed ideas

order to enhance its development.

for criticism we worked alongside each other, investigating the forest, experimenting and discussing the development of

The approach was enabled by:

work. In this respect, teaching, making learning and discussing

1. advertising an open call to a broad range of people

became integrated and integral in the realisation of artwork.

(researchers at universities, local and international artists and students studying at York St John University).

‘It was important to share time and knowledge with

2. selecting a key maker who shared similar ideals and

other participants during sessions in the forest,

who could relate to all the participants.   3. organising two events spread over several months to include different stages of the development and active experimentation.

and to get insights into both their previous practices and their approaches to the project in hand.’ Jane Rushton

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We organised two events at Dalby Forest and invited Professor Mike Collier from the University of Sunderland to be ‘key maker’ [keynote speaker] due to his authentic approach to artistic research within rural environments and involvement with environmental aesthetics. His engagement with picture-making in response to environmental phenomena and a practice that learns from the natural environment embodies many of the ideas the cluster had about working in a rural location. In addition, his approach adopting a sensual and intuitive approach to research as supported by cross-disciplinary discussion - ensured a balanced approach to the project.

Nattskredâ&#x20AC;Żâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Dew Fall Hawk Scan the code to listen or visit: bit.ly/nattskred

Anna’s soundscape is inspired by Swedish and English dialectal names for the nightjar, as well as an old Swedish folk story about a woman who loved spinning so much that she did this on Sundays as well as on weekdays. As a result, she was turned into a nightjar – destined to spin forever. The title “Nattskred - Dew Fall Hawk” refers to two of the many Swedish and English dialectal names for the nightjar. The churring voice of the nightjar is an extraordinary sound. It can be heard on still, silent, warm and windless summer evenings as dusk turns into night - a rapid succession of notes all at the same pitch with a down-toned slur interrupting at intervals. The nightjar has many superstitious colloquial names including the Corpse Bird or Lich (corpse) Fowl and Gabble Ratchet (a name for the Gabriel Hounds of the Wild Hunt. In Nidderdale (Yorkshire) there is folk legend that the souls of dead

N A T T S K R E D E W F A L L H A W K

Collaboration between Mike Collier and Anna Svensdotter This collaborative work by musician and sound artist Anna

unbaptized children go into nightjars. ‘The Burring Dor Hawk’ is what Wordsworth called the nightjar in his long poem of 1805 – ‘The Waggoner’. In the first six lines he introduces the nightjar as follows:

TIS spent … this burning day of June! Soft darkness o’er its latest gleams is stealing;

Svensdotter and artist Mike Collier was produced with

The buzzing dor-hawk, round and round, is wheeling,

sound recordist Geoff Sample using Geoff’s sonograms and

That solitary bird

field recordings of nightjars. It grew out of discussions between

Is all that can be heard

Anna and Mike at the SelfScapes conference in

In silence deeper far than that of deepest noon

Dalby Forest in February 2018 and developed through telephone, email and Skype meetings between Anna, Mike

In an earlier version of the poem, Wordsworth described the

and Geoff over subsequent months. The artists focused on

voice of the nightjar thus:

an exploration of the sound of a nightjar because this bird is a recognisably important symbol of the success of conservation

The Night-hawk is singing his frog-like tune,

at Dalby Forest.

Twirling his watchman’s rattle about …

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SelfScapes Event 1: Friday 23rd February 2018 at Dalby Forest workshops  The aim of the first event which took place in February was for invited artists and students to research the forest together and initiate discussion. This event included short Pecha Kucha presentations from participating artists to enable them to get to know each other’s work. In order to expand the dimensions of the project, natural historian Brian Walker gave a talk and tour of Dalby Forest. This inspired researchers to adopt first-hand approaches to engaging with nature by, for example, understanding the changing nature and uses of the forest in the past which leaves traces in the present. Researchers then participated in a range of activities including drawing, photographing, sound recording and note making. Accompanied by Brian Walker, the forest walks involved documenting and responding to the immersive experiences of being in the forest. The day’s events concluded with a presentation of Mike’s practice followed by informal group discussions on ideas and observations, with the aim of establishing conceptual foundations for the forthcoming exhibition and events.   The purpose of the activity was largely to eschew preconceived notions of the forest and its association with ideas of the picturesque. These notions would simply speak to passive tourist impulses, which we wanted to avoid. Instead the research adopts a more active approach, using phenomenological methods of encountering the forest location, thus leading to more subjective responses.

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SelfScapes Event 2: Friday 22nd June 2018 at Dalby Forest workshops    The second event built upon the developing practice which emerged from the event in February. The artists and students also returned in the interim to develop the work initiated in February. The approach consisted of installing artwork in the forest and staging a more conventional exhibition in a gallery space. Twenty-eight artists, academics and students exhibited work in the exhibition. Three round table discussions focused on themes that emerged from exhibited artwork: ‘Human and Nature’, chaired by Tony Charles (Platform A Gallery), ‘Walking and Sensing’, chaired by Mike Collier and ‘Alternative Realities’, chaired by Louise Hutchinson (Yorkshire Sculpture Park). The private view event was accompanied by a map which allowed visitors to follow the route of the artwork around the forest. This provided an opportunity for experiential and contextualized learning for both the students and visitors, thereby accommodating the overarching ethos of the event; a non-hierarchical, shared experience of art, nature, discourse and education. The event concluded in the evening with a more traditional social event; a private view within the gallery space.

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The events for SelfScapes originated as a collaboration between York St John University and Dalby Forest. At this time, Forestry England at Dalby was developing its Arts programme and York St John had recently expanded its Fine Art department to include Photography and Illustration. York St John forged a relationship with Dalby to enable staff and students to develop learning opportunities and encourage an appreciation of working in non-institutional outdoor spaces.   During the time of the SelfScapes events, the artist Helen Sear embarked upon a residency on-site, which concluded with an exhibition across several venues including Ryedale Folk Museum and Crescent Arts, Scarborough alongside Dalby Forest. Helen Sear represented Wales in the Venice Biennale in 2015 and her practice combines media to explore the materiality of vision, often in natural environments such as the forest. Following on from SelfScapes, the Turner Prize winning artist Rachel Whiteread installed one of her ‘Shy Sculptures’ within the forest as part of the 14-18 Now Centenary Art Commissions.   The concept of SelfScapes originated from shared interests of four staff in the newly expanded art department; Mark Adams, Dr Christina Kolaiti, Dr Joanna Sperryn-Jones and Sally Taylor. This encompassed practice-led research across a range of media: photography, sculpture and drawing. Rather than conceiving project ideas defined by, say, the associated processes and materials of the medium, the researchers were more focused on finding a common research focus. Through examining each other’s practices and through informal discussion, the following research questions emerged:

In what ways can artwork enable new perceptions and/or sensing of forest environments?

In what ways can artwork enhance our understanding of reciprocal relationships between self and forest environment?

Can setting artwork within a forest encourage new audiences to engage with art? Who are these new audiences? In what ways can engagement be further enhanced?

In what ways can alternative realities and imaginative responses to the forest re-enchant our sense of both self and forest?

S A L L Y T A Y L O

Since moving to rural North Yorkshire, Sally Taylor’s work has begun to investigate the cognitive dissonance experienced in the natural environment and the sense of living through an image as opposed to engaging directly with the landscape through more meaningful, embodied experiences. SelfScapes offered opportunities to collaborate with colleagues at York St John University while reaching out to other practitioners across the UK. Prior to SelfScapes, Taylor’s work had been shown in predominantly ‘white cube’ spaces – it was this project that led to an emerging interest in sculptural processes that developed on from making small scale drawings in the studio.   Drawn motifs become ‘blockages or openings’ with geometric shapes, pebbles, boulders, speech bubbles, clouds, apertures and clearings. The ‘Head’ drawings become environments, with the ground emerging as a stage to ‘play out’ a sense of self and lived experience. The objects gathered while walking in Dalby have been used to inform the drawings, either by recording their form and translating this into drawings, or by using the objects as items to collage into the works on paper, as an attempt to directly resolve the ‘dissonance’ between the environment and the image.  Subsequently, Taylor has embarked on a solo residency with the Forestry Commission at Dalby Forest that concludes in 2020.

D R J O A N N S P E R R Y N J O N E S

Joanna Sperryn-Jones makes and breaks sculpture and frequently encourages others to participate in the process. The broken body as environment for self informs Jo’s research; she investigates the contrasting experiences of injury and health, restriction and extension. Tree branches cast into bone china ambiguously represent both broken limbs and a fragile environment. Jo explores audience participation as a means for viewers to reflect on their individual agency and its impact on the environment.  During SelfScapes Professor Mike Collier’s focus on non-hierarchical, more than human perspectives to exploring the forest environment led Jo to an interest in plant-life in its own right and our impact on plants. Focusing on how plants communicate, Jo used a 3D pen to create networks of flowers connected by arteries. These covered the gallery floor and were broken as viewers entered the space.  Leading on from SelfScapes Jo is developing an augmented reality app, commissioned as part of a larger EIRA-funded research project at NetPark (the world’s first digital park). The participative work Reciprocity (the reciprocal relationship between people and trees) explores how augmented reality apps could encourage us to spend more time outdoors; change the way we perceive plant-life, and increase user wellbeing.

Mark Adams’ photographic practice is situated within the broad context of landscape representation and involves an ongoing preoccupation with the meta-language of film and its distancing affect from observed reality. Much of his practice involves walking as a generative activity and as a significant factor in the creation of narrative. His recent research projects have explored dichotomized experiences that emerge from extended walks and encounters with historic, virtual and physical spaces. In the months preceding SelfScapes, Adams began working with maps and GPS systems as contingent elements in the recording of urban locations. These mapping apps produce

The artist’s corporeal relationship to spaces within the forest and the interplay of light and surface are inscribed using the raw material of light, which emerges from the forest and the technology. The prints embody the symbiotic relationship between walking, encounters with nature, digital technology and analogue photographic processes. The discursive nature of the event, the multi-disciplinary practices, collective ideas and the forest itself have influenced the direction of Adams’ practice. Subsequently the artist has developed this methodology and extended it to colour photography. This is explored in his recently published chapbook called ‘Peregrinus’, a photo walk following the historic Bede’s pilgrim trail in South Tyneside. Peregrinus [Bede’s Walk] is published by A3 press.

vector lines made by walking - indexical traces of his intuitive photo walks. During SelfScapes this practice was extended to rural environments. These vector lines generated by mobile apps were then transferred onto transparent film and incorporated into darkroom-based silver gelatin prints. The artwork maps the walking route around the forest and therefore describes both the place and the active processes of negotiating space.

SSW 30 Knots or Boukadoura Scan the code to watch or visit: bit.ly/ssw30

D R C H R I S T I N K O L A I T I

of origin, during a boating performance entitled

On The Accounts of the Deceased. The sails, which feature performances based on old family photographs, create an autobiographical trail influenced by a long tradition of a family of sailors and facilitated by the strong SSW wind, or

Christina Kolaiti is a visual artist whose research develops

Boukadoura (the Greek term for stormy weather) embarking on

the narrative properties of photographic portraiture as a form

a collective journey of personal “map-revising”.

of visual storytelling, embodied experience and reflective practice. This approach to photography was initiated through

‘Heart of the Matter (2018) is a composition heavily

a series of interdisciplinary collaborations developed as part

influenced by American composer and philosopher

of the doctoral project The Influence of Photographic Narrative

Pauline Oliveros (1932–2016). It presents a prompt

in Healthcare Dialogue (Kolaiti, 2010). The experience of

for action that, in this case, is manifested by a musical

working within an arts and healthcare research context

recording. The inception for the piece emerged from

developed the concept of photographic re-narration;

evocative conversations with Christina about trying

a term coined from psychoanalysis. This process is based on the reflective authoring and re-authoring of visual narrative and has met a number of creative applications, mostly relating to autobiography and self-representation.

to simultaneously present multiple contrasts: in particular, ocean and forest, water and air, and past and present. This led to a score which prompts the performer to embrace present/past,

In The Road Less Travelled, Scott Peck (1978) defines psychotherapy as a process of map-making. He notes, “First of all we are not born with maps, we have to make them, and making requires effort.” (Peck, 1978, p. 97).

real/impossible, and super human/humanity dualisms. The recording presented in Dalby Forest for this installation blends found sounds from

SSW 30 Knots or Boukadoura negotiates such subject matter

historical recordings of wind and sea, my trombone

through autobiographical references of dislocation and

playing which, at times, is time-stretched beyond the

displacement. The personal experience of being brought up

limits of human performance, and my own breath.’

on a Greek island and relocating to the UK, has underpinned

Murphy McCaleb

a number of parallel project installations between countries. Life size sails installed on trees in Dalby Forest transform the environment of the forest into the Mediterranean. The ambience of the installation is informed by McCaleb’s amalgamation of sounds of the life of trees and waves, on windy days. While the walkers of Dalby Forest engage with a curated environment of displacement, another set of sails float

Heart of the Matter (2018) Scan the code to listen or visit: bit.ly/murphymccaleb

at the Saronic Gulf, the sea which surrounds Kolaiti’s island 33

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The following three sections focus on the themes that emerged from the round-table discussions; ‘Human and Nature’, ‘Walking and Sensing’, and ‘Alternative Realities’. 35

T H E M E 1 H U M A N A N A T U R E

The decision to invite a natural historian to work with us on SelfScapes was initiated by Professor Mike Collier. Often as artists we consider our role as primarily visual, placing significant attention on vision and the appearance of things and disregard other senses. Within the project we were provided with opportunities to challenge this way of working. A guided walk by natural historian Brian Walker broadened our collective perception of the site. As a result, our experiences took us beyond what we would normally understand or sense if we relied purely on our visual capacities. Our findings challenged preconceptions of the forest as an ancient site free from human intervention. Dalby has a history as a working forest for wood production and has been under a process of constant change for many centuries. In fact, it has not even been a forest at several points in time.

‘By 1600 the forest has gone, come back, gone again, come back again, and it’s going again. Forty timber trees are left to go, virtually nothing is left, so we know that during this period people were having to bring trees from the other side of the North Yorkshire Moors to build houses in this area.’  Brian Walker   The land has changed to meet varying commercial demands over several centuries, from the supply of wood to rabbit warrening. Unlike Europe and North America, there are no deep forests in the UK. Here they exist mainly as commercial entities. The oldest trees in Dalby are only 200-300 years old

so, relatively speaking, many are not very tall. As a result, these

exploring and experimenting with the tactile properties

tamed and often commercialized spaces don’t inspire quite the

of the material. SelfScapes enabled her to develop an interest

same sublime feeling as their European and American

in the trees themselves and the commercial growing seasons.

equivalents.

Alex exhibited her work outside, in the forest, and incorporated living trees into her work, creating a contrast and tension

‘Listening to Mike and Brian’s lectures during the walk

between these and her carved wood pieces. The SelfScapes

brought the link between land, politics and finances

sculpture made a distinctive connection between the living

close. Dalby Forest’s recent and distant history was

tree and the carved interpretation. She is now extending the

made visible by its reference to trees.  A line of trees,

presentation of her paper sculptures (also a product of trees)

growing along a stream were planted for their wood

and incorporating them into the natural landscape.

which was known to withstand moisture and so

‘After some time in the forest I was surprised by feeling

would not warp. In the valley nearby, there are large

less “Other” and more at one with the life forms of the

hawthorn trees, descendants of hawthorns which

forest, resilient and on constant alert in their mission to

were planted hundreds of years ago at this site as

survive, pawns in the game of whatever management is

part of a medical garden of a monastery.’ Ute Kreyman

in power.’

It’s only in the years following the 1960s, since the working

‘The paintings I made for the exhibition were inspired

classes have been able to travel by car, that visiting forests for

by this feeling of solidarity with the life of the forest,

recreation has become popular. Therefore, our interpretation

leading me to title my paintings, “I Belong Here as

of the forest as a site for leisure and one which accommodates

Much as Anywhere.”’ Joanna Jones

the tourist’s gaze is a relatively new concept.   Petra Young, Funding and Development Manager for Forestry England, introduced us to the history of the organisation and its ambitions for the future. She told us that the Forestry

‘The feeling of extension that contrasts against the feeling of being restricted inside an injured body is enhanced in certain activities and spaces. Prior to

Commission was set up to manage the industry of wood

SelfScapes I had written about this in relation

production in 1919 at the end of World War I when supplies

to mountain biking and other extreme sports where

were severely depleted. This industry continues to the present

risk-taking focuses the senses externally.

day and has been expanded to encompass preserving precious

During SelfScapes I realised a similar effect occurs

habitats and biodiversity as well as recreational uses of the

from walking through the forest and focusing on the

forest and education.

other life forms present. Rather than the feeling that

Prior to SelfScapes, participating visual artist, Alexandra Harley,

I am looking out from a body, I feel connected in a

created sculptures as discrete, self-contained works exhibited

larger system. I become more aware of the reciprocal

in indoor venues. She uses many materials and has a long

relationships between life forms including our own.’

history in carving and constructing wood sculptures,

Joanna Sperryn-Jones

John Harrison grew up and now works in Blackburn, Lancashire.

The aim of the exhibition form was to break

Prior to SelfScapes he had explored his hometown and its

up the organic spaces of the forest with images of

industrial, multi-ethnic history using photographic research

Blackburn’s policy-induced forest, offering visitors an

practices to counter contemporary themes such as social isolation, racial division and deprivation. As he came to research Dalby for SelfScapes he continued to reflect on and develop this approach.

opportunity for introspection on the contrast between de-industrialised ‘forgotten’ spaces and the ‘managed’, yet organic, woodland of Dalby Forest’.  John Harrison

‘I became interested in the notion that the term ‘forest’ could be applied to either urban or rural environments, or a spiritual condition. I was also intrigued by an alternative parlance: using ‘forest’ as an adjective – a forest of green – indicating a significant mass of tightly compact or tangled objects that may or may not refer to organic matter. This definition implied that other physical or cognitive states, perhaps other types of environment, could be considered to have forest-like qualities;  forests being temporary, impacted by social policy, economic paradigms, land acquisition or environmental priorities.   I reflected upon Dalby Forest, the wider delineation of the North Yorkshire Moors (a national park managed by Forestry England) and how it contrasted with the urban, de-industrialised landscape of Blackburn. I made a series of photographs within this landscape, using the soon-to-be demolished terraced houses as not only a motif, but as a clue to the wider geographic, socio-political context. I aimed for the photographs to express a tension between the wild, the organic, and the industrial and therefore compositional emphasis was placed upon trees, hedgerows and weeds.

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H E M E 2 A L K I N G N D E N S I N G

The following is based on notes from Prof Mike Collier’s Keynote talk/discussion. Mike coordinates the WALK (Walking, Art, Landscape and Knowledge) Research Centre at the University of Sunderland, which provides opportunities for artists, students, staff and colleagues from across a range of disciplines to share their experiences of the world as they walk creatively through it.

‘Much of my own artwork draws its inspiration from the simple act of walking through the world, creatively exploring the relationship between culture and nature through a detailed ecological study of local environments and our embodied engagement with the world. My walks variously take place in the city, through edgelands and the countryside. They don’t seek to walk away from the world, rather to confront it; to become sensually, socially and politically engaged in it. These walks are often what I call conversive, walking with others, and seek to redress the bifurcation of culture and nature … exploring our relationship with a more than human world. At the same time, this developing empathetic relationship to the world also allows for a greater sense of self-awareness … our SelfScape … and through this increased empathetic self-awareness comes a greater ability to navigate our engagement

with, and care for, the environment with respect to “the

This is what I would crucially call the ‘process – the

other” … by which I mean people, places, plants and

research process’

animals; to decolonise our relationship to the world.’ Practice-led research; collaboration and SelfScapes:

‘My approach to making work and research (are they different?!) is phenomenological and much influenced by the work of Wylie (2007) and Ingold (2010). The former stresses that “direct, bodily contact with, and experience of, landscape” reveals “how senses of self and landscape (what Jo refers as SelfScapes) are together made and communicated, in and through lived experience” (Wylie, 2007, p. 141). In clearly articulating the relationship between practice and research, Tim Ingold, as an anthropologist, questions the traditional, Enlightenment ideology that form arises as an abstract, mental idea that is then imposed onto inert, otherwise formless matter. This is emblematised in the “ancient inclination in Western thought” to think of cultural embodiment as “a movement of inscription, whereby some pre-existing pattern, template or programme . . . is ‘realised’ in a substantive medium” (Ingold, 2000, p. 193). However, Ingold asserts that “the forms of artefacts are not given in advance but are rather generated in and through the practical movement of one or more skilled agents in their active, sensuous engagement with the material . . . [artefacts] emerge . . . within the relational contexts of the mutual involvement of people and their environments” (Ingold, 2000, p. 88).

I see my own research process as a collaboration between art and science. In “Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology” philosopher David Abrams says that “Bodily perception provides our most intimate entry into a primary order of reality that can be disparaged or dismissed at our peril” (Abram, 2010, p. 307). In other words, we should learn to trust in our own instincts; to value how we feel, think about and experience the environment. “This ambiguous order”, explains Abrams, “cannot be superseded by reason … and the careful practise of our sciences since it provides the experiential substance without which reason becomes rudderless” (Abram Ibid). Facts shouldn’t undermine how we feel about things. Reason, the thinking or science, doesn’t mean anything unless you feel it; unless you experience it. And that feeling, that sense, that you have can only “be augmented, elaborated, clarified and complexified by those sciences” (Abram Ibid). However, and importantly, Abrams suggests that “our participation within it can be honed and deepened by our discoveries” (Abram Ibid). This is a symbiotic, sometimes unstable, relationship between art and science; each just as important as each other. In the same way, I’m also suggesting that the distinction between culture and nature are a lot less stable than we might think they are, and that these instabilities create interesting opportunities for artists to research and work in. In Summary my projects are collaborative, conversive

and phenomenological and involve the “gathering of

We need to try to see and understand flora and fauna

synaesthetic, material and social sensory experiences

not from a human perspective but from their own sense

as they unfold … in the duration of the walk”

of themselves. In doing this, we may get closer to an

(Tilley, 2012, p. 29).

understanding of who WE are – our SelfScape.

They often involve dropping to our knees and crawling on the ground to see and sensually inspect the smallest insect or plant … … to smell the wild rocket, to see the bee orchid up

To paraphrase a recent book title by Frans De Waal - are we smart enough to know how smart trees, animals and birds are? (DeWaal, 2017).’

close or just to experience the world from a different, more than human, perspective – a non-hierarchical, non-human perspective … in his autobiographical writings the poet John Clare often writes of “dropping down” when he wanted to make notes, a kind of bird-like, foraging movement (Mabey, 2005, p. 37). My aim in producing artwork is to explore ways of showing how we might better understand our complex relationship to a more-than-human world, enabling us to value the whole world (birds, plants, animals and peoples) as a living ecology of cultural differences. We need to release ourselves “from the dichotomy of regarding nature either as a combination of processes or things … to recognize that nature is a communion of subjective, collaborative beings that organize and experience their own lives.” (Hall, 2011, p169). I would suggest that the idea and experience of walking creatively can enhance and expand the ecological imaginary in such a way that we might be open to considering more-than-human agency and subjectivity.

Lyn Wait emphasises the element of exchange with other

darkroom and the way we orientate our eye in and

participants as well as the environment,

around a photographic image. The continually changing

‘Participating in SelfScapes as a shared experience

and flickering light of the forest establishes a sense of

was the most impacting aspect of the event for me.

retracting and expanding spaces.

I think there was a conducive atmosphere enhanced by being outside and/or bringing the outside in, both

My response to the site at Dalby is experiential,

by visual means and through verbal interaction’.

it’s about embracing getting lost and adopting

Lyn Wait

an intuitive wayfinding method. By incorporating

Jane Rushton is attracted to remote environments, places that give the opportunity for quiet contemplation.

a practice mirroring the natural and man-made dimensions of the site (the use of organic film-based media and digital GPS tracing to inscribe the route

‘SelfScapes work involved using digital imagery

taken) the hybrid nature of my experience and

alongside “specimens”, neither of which had been

process is disclosed in the photographic images.

part of my outcome before. Walking has an

An orientation towards light [lichtung] determines

extraordinary effect on the sense of self. It can

one’s presence within the forest which is simultaneously

lead to a feeling of vulnerability, which personally

central and surrounding.’ Mark Adams

I find compelling, but it can also generate the feeling of privilege in bearing witness to the landscape.’ Jane Rushton   Martin Heidegger, explains Mark Adams, used the forest as a symbol of reality and became an initial influence on the artist’s interpretation of the site.

‘Central to Heidegger’s philosophy is the concept of the forest clearing, a coexistence of space and a state of being, presence or ‘Dasein’. This philosophy has a close relationship with photography as it is experienced while walking in a forest. One’s orientation in the forest is often determined by the temporal and often changing qualities of light refracted through the trees. Shafts of filtered and fragmented light also determine the way photographers make images in the traditional

T H E M E 3 A L T E R N A T I R E A L I T I E S

The SelfScapes exhibition followed on from a residency and exhibition by the artist Helen Sears. Helen’s work had a positive impact on many of us but in particular her use of photography technique. This influenced Anna Lilleengen who considered the material and spatial nature of her practice in relation to the location.

‘I was inspired by her technique of printing large-scale black and white photographic images of immense log piles in the forest onto dibond aluminium. I experimented with printing two of my most process-led images from SelfScapes directly onto a brushed, textured, aluminium dibond substrate. The effect of this was to create a shifting of light on the image whenever the viewer moves around the picture. When printed this way, the image can more easily conjure the sense of wonder, discovery and of active engagement/participation, which our SelfScapes discussions had highlighted as key.’ Anna Lilleengen Anna Svensdotter, a musician who contributed sound pieces to the exhibition, explored her situatedness through sound.

‘SelfScapes has made me more aware of the relationship between self and environment, what I now call the outer and inner selfscape. What impact the environment makes on the music.’  Anna Svensdotter

SelfScapes Key maker, Mike Collier, who collaborated with

Joanna Jones from Dover Arts Development summarised

Anna Svensdotter, also commented:

what many of us felt about the events.

‘I learned so much from working with Brian …. It is

‘Projects like SelfScapes and Dover Arts Development

important to learn from natural historians/scientists

(DAD), are forerunners in encouraging a more

whose knowledge about the place is second to none

integrated and sustainable approach with artists

(with years of dedicated experience) ... and whose

engaging with the environment and new communities,

enthusiasm for their subject is infectious. I also hugely

something we will seek to secure in the post

valued Brian’s generosity of spirit and open mindedness

covid-19 world.’ Joanna Jones

with regards to our project. It was, furthermore, a great pleasure to meet and work with Anna. That was inspirational. This meeting led to making further connections with another musical composer (Sabine Vogel who is a friend of Anna’s). SelfScapes is part of an ongoing series of work around birdsong and place that I am developing. The collaboration with Anna pushed my thinking in a way I hadn’t tried before. I think that the work I did for SelfScapes has helped in the development of my ongoing project about the relationship between art and science specifically with respect to birdsong, valuing the importance of cultural difference across species in a more-than-human-world. I do hope SelfScapes continues and envelops - for me it is an important project to be involved in as I share so many of the aims, objectives and working practices of the project’s initiators.’ Mike Collier

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Professor Mike Collier, Mark Adams, Dr. Christina Kolaiti, Dr. Joanna Sperryn-Jones, Sally Taylor 61

In keeping with the non-hierarchical foundations of the

In this way, participants were able to share in the uncertainty

SelfScapes project, it feels appropriate to present our

and vulnerability involved in making both art and in research,

reflections and ideas moving forward in the form of a series

creating a more open/honest research culture.

of rhizomatic notes rather than a linear, constructed argument. SelfScapes is a work in progress and will continue to develop

Artists formed an international and interdisciplinary community

in non-linear ways into the future.

of practice led by medium, materials and ideas. It is interesting to note that a number of these relationships/collaborations

There is sometimes a hierarchical divide in higher education

have developed further since SelfScapes.

between teaching and research. We believe that SelfScapes closed this gap. Not only did the students involved learn

SelfScapes formed a strong working alliance between

first-hand about the research process and benefit from equal

Dalby Forest (a working forest and outdoor leisure ‘facility’)

participation but SelfScapes foregrounded the importance

and artists. In addition to artists’ experiential research within

of ongoing research engagement as an important element in

the forest environment, they were able to draw inspiration

retaining currency and innovation in higher education teaching.

from exhibiting in the forest. Crucially, this involved artists understanding and engaging with the multiple uses and issues

SelfScapes was a real-life situation for students who hadn’t

at Dalby Forest and the multi-faceted role of Forestry England.

before been involved in external working practices and who were able to learn alongside ‘established’ artists;

A constructive dialogue was established between notional

although this was a two-way process with artists also

ideas of gallery spaces [as predominately urban constructs]

learning much from the students.

which were together, as a group, re-evaluated in relation to our decision to situate artwork in rural forest situations …

Interestingly, we felt that the students really ‘upped their

as Ingold explains: ‘…taking outdoors an axiom fundamental

game’ and started to act as professionals as the lack of

to the constitution of the classroom as an indoor learning

hierarchy created a more cohesive, cooperative, supportive

environment, namely, that knowledge is to be pieced together

research culture. Competition and hierarchy between people

through the work of head and hands, from information obtained

were removed, and the pursuit of knowledge formed a

at diverse locations’ (Ingold, 2008, p. 5).

common goal. Engaging with a key maker who was equally researcher/artist/educator/collaborator enhanced this.

Much of the research carried out for SelfScapes feels even more urgent now as, during Covid-19, we begin discussions

The collaborative approach to research, sharing ideas together

about the potential of using natural environments for

before they have become concrete, enabled us to learn much

education. In these nervous 2020 moments emerging from

more about artists’ thinking/making processes as these are

Covid-19 lockdown, we feel that future SelfScapes projects

often described differently after the event – i.e. a researcher/

can/should continue to address and foreground links to

artist will necessarily create a logic that wasn’t there during

environmental issues, for example; sustainability, global

the messy process of developing the work; as the Key maker

warming, species preservation, empathetic respect for

said in his talk and discussion ‘instabilities create interesting

the non-human.

opportunities for artists to research and work in.’

SelfScapes began addressing relationships between landscape

(Ecotherapy) is being increasingly used to promote good

and technology – leading to discussions of a more complex

mental and physical wellbeing through outdoor activity in a

[non-binary] and enriching discussion about what is nature

green environment (Mind, 2018b).

and what is culture. There is much work to be developed in this area post Covid-19.

Moving forwards, SelfScapes can look at projects that uniquely combine art, walking and ecotherapy. SelfScapes can explore

SelfScapes enabled artists to connect with outdoor spaces,

the possibility that our sense of ourselves (our SelfScape

developing haptic skills and encouraging an engagement with

… so crucial to a sense of wellbeing) is crucially linked to an

the material of our environment. We believe that this is very

emotional and creative understanding of our environment –

important as we move out of the current lockdown situation;

a kind of inward and outward ‘nature cure’ – as well as a

as Tim Ingold said, it is important that we, as artists,

scientific ‘appreciation’ of it. It can examine whether we need

researchers and teachers ‘aim to embed our ideas of the social

to re-think our approaches to the environment in the 21st

and the symbolic within the immediate day to day activities

Century (our relationship to it) in ways that address what has

that bind practice and representation, doing, thinking,

been called the, ‘engagement-versus-detachment question’…

and talking and to show that everything takes place, in one

which ‘with its stress on appreciation, conceives of an observer

way or another on the move.’ (Ingold, 2008, p. 3). This approach

interpreting and valuing what she is looking at’ objectively,

will be enhanced and developed moving forwards.

rather than valuing that same observer’s ‘creative, multisensory embodied being-in-the-world’ (Malafouris, 2013, p. 16).

We feel that there is considerable potential for addressing links to mental and physical health mediated by these encounters in

SelfScapes is about reconnecting with the world, and

the forest (much has been written recently, for example, about

potentially changing our relationship to it. If people appreciate

‘movements’ such as forest bathing). SelfScapes took us out of

the wellbeing aspects of forests, plants and animals then this

our usual setting. A number of artists and students mentioned

could change their behaviour towards the environment as well

that walking and ‘being creative’ in the forest felt good for

as enhance their own sense of wellbeing; their SelfScape.

their wellbeing; connecting us not only with nature, but with a mediated experience of nature that didn’t dismiss the culture/ nature binary but addressed it. Such an approach is crucial when considering issues around wellbeing. It has been demonstrated that walking can improve one’s sense of health and wellbeing (University of Cambridge, 2015) and that art (or an involvement in art) is also associated with higher wellbeing (Fujiwara, Kudrna & Dolan, 2014). GP’s are now prescribing walking as a cure for patients (Perry, 2014) and Art Therapy is a well-used and successful support mechanism for people prescribed with mental illness (Mind, 2018a). In recent years, a new form of therapy

Alexandra Harley is a London based sculptor whose practice

Anna Svensdotter holds a Master of Fine Arts and a post

is characterised by an immersive engagement with materials.

graduate performance degree from the Academy of Music

She is an elected and active member of the Royal Society of

in Gothenburg. Since 1993 she has been on the scene for

Sculptors and The London Group. Alexandra Harley has had

contemporary music and improvisation. As a soloist and

fellowships in Japan, the USA and the Brian Mercer Fellowship

with different ensembles, such as the flute quartet 40f,

spending three months in the Mariani Bronze Foundry in Italy.

the experimental quartet Ensemble Parkour, and duo Sabana,

She has displayed public work in the Caribbean, Europe and the

Anna has performed in Sweden and the rest of Europe,

USA, and has been selected for juried exhibitions including:

and 2015 in Australia. The solo CD “Alpha Waves” with Swedish

The ING Discerning Eye, Royal Academy Summer Exhibition,

music for flute and electronics, most of it written directly

Royal Society of Sculptors Summer Exhibition, Creekside Open,

for Ms Svensdotter, was released in March 2013 with great

Cork Street Open and the Wells Contemporary. Alexandra has

reviews.

an extensive international CV and work in private collections.  Her contribution to SelfScapes was the soundart piece Anna Lilleengen is a process-driven fine art photographer

Nattskred – Dew Fall Hawk in collaboration with Mike Collier.

who uses the physical structure and limitations of the medium

The piece can be heard on soundcloud: https://bit.ly/nattskred

to create sculptural pieces that explore materiality and transient states of being. Based in Scandinavia and Yorkshire,

Dr Christina Kolaiti is a Senior Lecturer in Photography at

her romantic images exteriorize inner conditions of the psyche

York St John University. She is a visual artist whose research

and present their reflection in wilderness landscapes.

developed through interdisciplinary collaborations with healthcare institutions. Between 2002 and 2013 Kolaiti

For SelfScapes, she used a large-format 1870s plate camera

developed a series of projects with Northumbria Healthcare

to craft detailed intimate images that invoke spirit of place

NHS Trust and the MBBS Honours Medicine and Surgery of

and invite the viewer into private iterations of the ontological

Newcastle University. For over a decade Kolaiti’s research

tension of being between subjective and objective.

activities have positioned the narrative properties of fine

In Spring 2020 she exhibited alongside JMW Turner’s works

art photography within a diverse range of scientific and

at the Mercer Gallery, Harrogate.

pedagogical contexts.  Her research profile includes exhibitions set within various hospital sites (for example, The Northern Surgery Skills Institute at Hexham General Hospital and The Royal College of Physicians in London). She has received research awards by The Arts and Humanities Research Council, The Arts Council

England and most notably, The Combined Royal Photographic Society and Royal Medical Colleges Medal in 2011.

Clare Smith works across genres in drawing, printmaking,

Holly Futers is an artist based in York. Her work pushes

painting and filmmaking. She is interested in the embodied

the boundaries of imagination; working on drawings and

experience of place and space, with a focus on autobiography

sculptures to connect the viewer with their own sense

and memory. She uses pattern, chance and process and

of imagination, or with that depicted in the artworks.

strategies such as cutting, tearing, gluing and stitching, with

For SelfScapes she created a wearable head sculpture with

a reference to the importance of labour and the handmade.

her drawings inscribed inside. She exhibited the disembodied

The delicacy and fragility of some of Smith’s work reflects a

head outside so that viewers could pick it up and try it on at

constant sense of the precariousness of physical existence.

will. There were many sightings of members of the public

Collaboration is part of Smith’s practice and she is co-founder

wandering around wearing Holly’s head!

of Dover Arts Development (DAD) together with painter,

‘What I want other people to get out of my work is to open their

Joanna Jones. Smith works from a studio in Dover, Kent.

minds to the world of your own mind and see how far you can push your thoughts and dreams.’

Daisy Taylor is a fine artist with a contemporary drawing and large-scale ephemeral practice which explores the connection

Jane Rushton comes from North Lancashire. She studied at

between the natural environment and its portrayal within

Lancaster University graduating with a First-Class degree in

Contemporary Art. Her work focuses primarily on mixed media

Visual Culture and M.Phil in Art: Practice and Theory.

drawing and the use of natural materials within ephemeral

She worked for many years as a lecturer in 20th c. Art History

displays to showcase her interest in societal issues. The work

and as Studio Practice tutor in Painting and Drawing.

created for SelfScapes 2018, explores the fragile connection

Her art has always been rooted in landscape and expresses

between the beauty of nature and the society that plays a part

the experience of being within environments rather than

in its degradation. It considers the parasite-like emergence of

depicting them directly. From Northern England and Scotland,

foreign bodies in the natural environment and the detrimental

to the Arctic regions of Greenland and Svalbard, it is the quiet

effect it has upon the landscape.

observation of the natural environment and the processes

at play within it that drive her practice. She is now based in Mallaig in the West Highlands.

Janet White is currently a resident artist at Crescent Arts,

Joanna Jones’s practice over several decades has included

Scarborough. Her first solo exhibition was in 2017 at Crescent

her studio-based painting practice and the porous collaborative

Arts and was titled Flow. Group exhibitions include the

frameworks she has founded with and for artists through

Footnotes series, 2016-2019.

the years. Following a Foundation year at Northwich College of Art, Jones continued her studies at the Byam Shaw School,

She works with found objects, plotting and mapping

graduating from the Royal Academy Schools in 1970.

pathways, and tracing the experience of her environment.

After 20 years in Europe she returned to the UK in 1997,

Her practice is concerned with ways in which found objects

settling in Dover and founding Dover Arts Development (DAD)

or materials inform perceptions of time, movement and

with artist Clare Smith in 2006. She continues to exhibit her

change through evident metamorphosis. Over the last two

paintings nationally and internationally and is represented

years she has been working with issues of waste, pollution

by Galerie Gilla Löcher in Berlin.

and climate change, and commissions include: Scarborough Museums Trust: Awash, 2018, installation for ScarboroArt,

Dr Joanna Sperryn-Jones is a lecturer, sculptor, writer and

The Art Gallery, Scarborough. Invisible Dust: Future Fossils,

arts organiser who completed her degree and PhD in Sculpture

2019, a collaborative project and exhibition/event at the

at Norwich University College of the Arts. Her doctoral thesis

Rotunda Museum, Scarborough.

simultaneously explored and drew parallels between personal experiences in life, such as breaking bones, with those of

Dr J Murphy McCaleb is Senior Lecturer of Music and

making/breaking sculpture, Derrida’s concept of the break

a Learning and Teaching Lead at York St John University.

and breaking as a methodology.

He received his doctorate in performance studies from the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire after studying trombone

Joanna is Senior Lecturer in Fine Art Sculpture Practice at

performance and chamber music at the University of Alaska

York St John University. She has exhibited in the UK

and the University of Michigan. As a multi-instrumentalist,

and internationally and has published several book chapters

Murphy engages in a wide range of musics, including classical,

and expositions on breaking, artistic research, sculpture and

jazz, rock, folk, electronic, and experimental, has recorded on

risk-taking in art and extreme sports. She is currently

multiple albums. His book, Embodied Knowledge in Ensemble

commissioned to create an augmented reality app for NetPark.

Performance, is published by Routledge. He has performed and worked across North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

John Harrison is a photographer and currently the

Lyn Wait has a BA in Ceramics from Central St Martin’s

Head of School for Art and Society at the University Centre

and an M.A Fine Art from the University of Leeds.

at Blackburn College. John graduated from the Newport School

She embraces theatre, performance, ceramics, film, drawing

of Documentary Photography and is currently undertaking

and sound installation. She was a designer for Ryedale

a practice-based PhD programme at the Northern Centre of

Community Opera and has taught and been an arts facilitator

Photography, centred on how writing and ‘Slow’ research

over many years. Seminal works include Men on the

can be utilised in parallel with photography to create stories

Terrace, a performance, Rievaulx Terrace; TURF, landscape

that counter mainstream narratives. John is a Senior Fellow

heritage and the human voice, Ryedale Folk Museum;

of the Higher Education Academy, and a member of both the

Fuller’s Earth, Redcoat and Rap, part of a collaborative

International Visual Sociology Association and the Redeye

environmental project about the notion of journey, Forest

Photography Network in Manchester.

of Dean, Gloucestershire. She was part of SelfScapes 2018. Recent work such as Sunset, Sunrise is a comment on

Judith Davies is an artist/maker working primarily with the

extinction. She is currently working with found and made

craft of ceramics and holds a M.A Ceramics from Goldsmiths/

objects that combine the personal with the environmental.

Uclan. She uses experimental processes in making; finding a

A work in progress is KAYAK, sponsored by Forestry England

balance between chance and intention. Central to her approach

through Dalby Forest, North Yorkshire.

is the importance of the hand’s engagement; her work is intensely tactile. It is informed by specific locations in the

Maggie Jackson is an art historian who works in the

landscape, particularly the coastal area of Northumberland;

Art & Design Department at the University of Chester.

by geology and natural history and by the tideline as a liminal

Her research is concerned with representations of northern

space and boundary between land and sea.

light, especially in Scandinavia. She has been preoccupied with

She teaches both ceramics and drawing and also works in

how light is used to capture mood and psychological states of

participatory art within areas of economic deprivation in the

mind, in portraiture and landscape. Her art practice is

North East.

collaborative and inter-disciplinary, and has encompassed installation work, photography, performance, dance and creative writing.  Since 2013 she has been making installation work entitled ‘On the Road Again’, in which large spotted bundles, of the sort Dick Whittington was meant to have carried, are placed in woodland and outdoor settings, representing displacement, exodus and itinerant travelling. This work has been exhibited in Cheshire, Italy and Iceland.

Mark Adams is a photographer whose practice and research is

Rachael Burnett has exhibited paintings and drawings

concerned with landscape representation. His work explores

in galleries in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Yorkshire.

the cultural forces that impact upon landscapes as well as

Her work is an exploration of impermanence, beauty and

the personal narratives that are woven into everyday places

uncertainty. According to Burnett, ‘playing at the threshold

through walking.

between order and chaos is the central practice and theme of my work’.

He was awarded the Chris Garnham Memorial Prize for photography at the Royal College of Art in 2001. Since then he

Burnett studied Fine Art at the University of Edinburgh and

has won a number of awards including the Greater Manchester

Edinburgh College of Art and graduated with a First-Class

Art Prize, the International Photography Awards and The Folio

degree. She went on to win various awards, including the

Society Illustration Awards.

‘James Cumin Award for Draughtsmanship’ at The Royal Scottish Academy and the Latimer Award ‘for meritorious

Over the past 20 years Mark has exhibited in galleries and

work by a young artist’ on two occasions.

museums in the United States, Europe and the UK. His work appears in Paris Lit Up magazine, Next Level, Der Greif

Ryan Davey graduated with a degree in Fine Art from

magazine and recently in the American Landscape publication

York St John University in 2019. He is primarily interested

‘Observations in the Ordinary’. He is member of Millennium

in wildlife, in particular birds. His work focuses on migration

Images and Senior Lecturer in Photography at York St John

and disruption due to the damage to the environment through

University. He currently lives in North Tyneside.

global warming or pollution. These juxtapositions are seen

Professor Mike Collier is a lecturer, writer, curator and artist.

to both depict animals and their struggle in the wild.

He studied Fine art at Goldsmiths College before being

He works in print media but has also completed several

appointed Gallery Manager at the ICA in London.

large-scale installation works.

He subsequently became a freelance curator and arts organiser, working extensively in the UK and abroad. In 1985 he moved to Newcastle to run the Arts Development Strategy at the Laing Art Gallery, where he initiated the Tyne International Exhibition of Contemporary Art.   For the last 15 years he has worked in education and is currently Professor of Visual Art at the University of Sunderland.  Throughout his career, Mike has maintained his artistic practice and he is now based in Cobalt Studios in Newcastle. He has shown work in a number of one-person and group shows in the UK and abroad.

in his work by using man-made materials such as acetates

Sally Taylor is an artist based in Ryedale, North Yorkshire,

Ute Kreyman is a London-based artist working in sculpture,

Senior Lecturer in Fine Art at York St John University and

drawing, photography and print. She is currently exploring

Co-Director of AHH Studio Collective, Malton, North Yorkshire

issues related to transition, from the familiar to the unfamiliar;

(2018-to date).

about connecting and linking. Her visual language refers to human activities and the leaving of traces, such as architecture

Recent group exhibitions include: The Far Away Nearby,

and knitting.

Rabley Drawing Centre, Wiltshire (2020); Art Happens Here, Crescent Arts, Scarborough (2020);

She has exhibited in the UK and abroad showing in

Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize 2019, London and UK tour

Gallery Unwahr, Berlin; Janus Avivson, Paris, The Watermans

(2019-20); Fully Awake, Freelands Foundation, London (2019);

Art Centre, National Trust, The Round Chapel London,

Art Happens Here, Ryedale Folk Museum (2019).

St Pancras Chambers and studio1.1. She is interested in

She has been short-listed for the Jerwood Drawing Prize

‘Art and Landscape’ and has collaborated with other artists

on six occasions (prize-winner in 2014).

in this area. She holds an MAFA and PGCE and is founding

Recent solo exhibitions include:

member of the artist group City Studios.

Residency at Dalby Forest, Forestry Commission, North Yorkshire (2019-20), Some Spaces Left, Platform A, Middlesbrough (2017); That Head, That Head, Rabley Contemporary, Wiltshire (2016). Sasha Bykova is a Fine Art undergraduate at York St John University. She is primarily interested in the physicality of materials and colour. As a multidisciplinary artist Bykova often works through engagement with different media to create an environment where unexpected connections can be made. For SelfScapes she proposed a collection of sculptures called “Tired Legs”(2018) as a reference for walking in the forest, spending time with it and leaving traces. The work explores the complex relationship we have with ourselves, our bodies and our surroundings.

Front and back cover Mike Collier The Burring Dor Hawk 2018, Print (photograph and reflection Jo Sperryn-Jones). Front and back inside cover Mark Adams, Detail of Lichtung [Heidegger’s Path] 2018, Silver gelatin print. P4 Event 1. P5 Sally Taylor installing her artwork. P5 Dalby courtyard building. P6 Event 2: round tables discussions (two photos). P6 John Harrison installing his artwork. P8 Mike Collier. From left to right, clockwise:

P9 Mike Collier. Top to bottom: Earth Stars: Gemini 2020, Digital Print. 50cms square: Flowers for Gemini: Agrimony; Bee Orchid; Betony; Black Horehound; Chicory; Cloudberry; Common Centaury; Knapweed; Poppy; Ragwort; Restharrow; Cinquefoil; Devil’s-bit Scabious; Dog Rose; Eyebright; Evening Primrose; Scabious; Fox and Cubs; Fuchsia; Great Burnet; Honeysuckle; Meadow Crane’s-bill; Melancholy Thistle; Purple-loosestrife; Pyramidal Orchid; Redshank; Ragged robin; Selfheal; Tufted Vetch; Weld; Yellow Mountain Saxifrage; Yellow-wort; Toadflax; Creeping Jenny; Spearwort; Forget-me-not; Bittersweet; Meadowsweet. The Dawn Chorus – A Transitional Narrative; 2018 - Turdines and Sibilants 1 2018, Digital Print. 50 cms Square: Produced in collaboration with Bennett Hogg and Geoff Sample.

Earth Stars: Sagittarius 2020, Digital Print. 50cms square: Flowers for Sagittarius: Dandelion; Daisy; Groundsel; Red Deadnettle; White Deadnettle; Gorse; Holly Berries; Elder Berries; Rowan Berries; Hawthorn Berries; Herb-Robert.

NB: Wildflowers were once called earth stars and together with artist Tom Jordan, I have produced twelve prints in an edition of five, one for each of the twelve signs of the Zodiac. In keeping with the original inspiration, the colour of the stars represents the colours of wild flowers open at a particular time of year. Star maps drawn using IAU and Sky and Telescope chart.

The Dawn Chorus – A Transitional Narrative - Turdines and Sibilants 2 2018, Digital Print. 50 cms Square: Produced in collaboration with Bennett Hogg and Geoff Sample.

P10 Mike Collier The Burring Dor Hawk 2018, Creative Unison pastel, Manipulated sonogram and digital print on paper. One metre square. Produced in collaboration with Geoff Sample and EYELEVEL.

Earth Stars: Taurus 2020, Digital Print. 50cms square: Flowers for Taurus: Biting Stonecrop; Birds Eye Primrose; Borage; Brooklime; Buck’s-horn Plantain; Cleavers; Common Bisort; Butterwort; Figwort; Mallow; Common Spotted Orchid; Creeping Buttercup; Common Vetch; Spring Gentian; Early Marsh Orchid; Foxglove; Angelica; Globe Flower; Forget-me-not; Hop Trefoil; Hounds Tongue; Japanese Rose; Kidney Vetch; Monkshood; Lucerne; Monkey Flower; Northern Marsh Orchid; Mountain Pansy; Scarlet Pimpernel; Yellow Iris; Salad Burnet; Purple Toadflax; Wild Mignonette; Yellow Rattle; Wild Thyme.

P11 Anna Svensdotter Nattskred - Dew Fall Hawk 2018, Sound installation.

The Dawn Chorus – A Transitional Narrative; Turdine Build Up 2018, 50 cms Square. Digital Print: Produced in collaboration with Bennett Hogg and Geoff Sample.

P18 Event 2: Tony Charles and Rachael Burnett in front of Rachael’s artwork.

P12 Rob Oldfield installing work by Clare Smith. P14 Event 2: art trail through the forest. P16 Event 1: a walk with Brian Walker. P17 Students from York St John University taking part in event 1.

P20 Alexandra Harley Ac 2018, Wood and rope. P21 Event 2: round table discussions and lunch break. P22 Ryan Davey Migration 2018, Laser-cut vinyl gold stickers.

P22 Lucy Charnock Can you paint with all the colours of Dalby Forest 2018, Tape and cardboard.

P51 Sasha Bykova Tired legs 2018, Cardboard, tape, mod roc, drawing ink. P51 Daisy Taylor Unnatural in Nature 2018, Ephemeral and Mixed Media.

P22 Alexandra Harley installing her artwork with Joanna Sperryn-Jones and Ute Kreyman P26 Sally Taylor Imagined Environment 1 2018, Graphite and painted stones on found paper.

P52 Anna Lilleengen, May Blossoming Field 2018, large format silver gelatin photograph using a Victorian plate camera, exhibited as a UV print onto brushed aluminium dibond. P55 Jane Rushton Bickley Gate 2018, Digital Print.

P27 Sally Taylor Collection Box - Imagined Environments 2018, Drawings, collages, found objects and papers, MDF, Perspex, footing blocks. P28-29 Joanna Sperryn-Jones Flowering to Silence 2018, ABS plastic.

P56 Anna Lilleengen, Dark Dandelions 2018, large format silver gelatin photograph using a Victorian plate camera, exhibited as a UV print onto brushed aluminium dibond.

P30-31 Mark Adams Lichtung [Heidegger’s Path] 2018, Silver gelatin prints.

P57 Clare Smith It was already too late #2 2018, Monotype, Akua inks on Xuan paper.

P32 Christina Kolaiti, SSW 30 Knots or Boukadoura 2018, Inkjet print on fabric, sailing rope, wooden pole and four tent pegs.

P58 Rachael Burnett Home 2018, Oil and paper on card.

P32 Christina Kolaiti, On The Accounts of the Deceased, Inkjet print on fabric sails, Optimist boats.

P59 Janet White Covering Ground 2 2018, Cyanotype on Zerkall mould-made paper. P60 Event 1: Anna Lilleengen’s Pecha Kucha.

P33 Murphy McCaleb Heart of the Matter 2018, Sound piece. P34 Event 2: round table discussions.

P64 Exhibition overview (Lyn Wait, Sally Taylor, Rachael Burnett, Sasha Bykova).

P36 Molly Shiel Talking head 2018, Interactive, mixed media.

P65 Exhibition overview (Molly Shiel, Daisy Taylor).

P40 Ute Kreyman At the same time 2018, Clay, Wood, Mixed media.

P65 Exhibition overview (Mike Collier, Anna Svensdotter, Jane Rushton, Joanna Sperryn-Jones).

P41 Joanna Jones I belong here as much as anywhere #1 2018, Egg tempera on canvas.

P65 Exhibition overview (Jane Rushton, Anna Lilleengen, Joanna Jones).

P42 John Harrison The Meta Forest 2018, PVC banner prints. P43 Holly Futers Head space 2018, Papier-mâché, wool, paint. P44 Judith Davies Pathway - what is found / is lost 2018, Porcelain, pigments, wax, soil. P47 Lyn Wait COAT 2018, 1980’s ‘mother of the bride’ coat, oak leaves, stones, rose, twigs, white marker. P49 Jane Rushton installation view of artworks. P50 Lyn Wait Neither song nor shriek nor caw 2018, Photograph of performance. P51 Christina Kolaiti, SSW 30 Knots or Boukadoura 2018, Inkjet print on fabric, sailing rope, wooden pole and four tent pegs.

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ISBN: 978-1-5272-6867-8 // Designed by Grundon Graphics 74