Land Listening

Art born of the love of land, all land, but also the land directly beneath my feet, the land i live on, the land i sleep on and am bring up my son with in.

I was an army child, and so lived a transient life moving every 1 to 3 years. After i left home i carried on travelling, or moving homes, as it was what i knew. I have been based in Totnes for the last 16 years and here on this very specific patch of land for 13 of those years.

Although i have always loved the natural world, and found deep pleasure in each and every landscape i have found myself in, there is something so precious about coming to know a piece of land deeply over time, to become intimate with it, to know it like a friend. I have become particularly enamoured with the beautiful ancient hollow way right next to my home and an old quarry at the opening to this. These two spaces have been a great support to me as i navigate some chronic pain issues exacerbated by stepping into peri-menopause. Sometimes they have been the only natural spaces i could access and i have enjoyed sinking deeply into their sights, sounds and smells as a gentle therapy, a balm to my bodily struggles.

I respond in gratitude, as an artist, to this great support and connection that the land has shared with me, this takes the form of rituals of gratitude, ode poems and ephemeral art left on the land.

It has also been expressed through an exhibition, in the quarry, of art pieces created from the plants within easy walking distance of my home and the quarry. It consisted of eco-printed cloth, ink made from oak galls, bunches of dried plants and seed heads, bones found in my garden and stones from the quarry.