Artists at Fleet Moss
WaterLANDS UK artists in residence Laura Harrington and Feral Practice (Fiona MacDonald) gave a presentation at a two day conference hosted in the New Forest’s tree house venue.
The Conference, held in September 24, was called ‘The Long View: Art, a sense of place, belonging and reciprocity in relation to landscape’ and focused on the urgent intersections of art and landscapes in a time of ecological crisis. It was led by Dr Melanie Rose, from the University of Leeds Arts and Humanities Institute and artist Laura Eldret, who is currently undertaking a PhD at University of the West England, in Bristol, exploring commoning, ecology and social practice.
The artists wrote and presented a spoken world piece that drew the audience into an imagined immersive experience of being on the bog, observing processes of restoration and having direct encounters with contractors and with the bogs themselves. They introduced their collaborative project ‘Tenderbog’, gave an overview of the concepts, aims, questions raised in their work so far for WaterLANDS and how they hope to address and understand value and healing across people and habitats. They discussed how they were thinking with the low-lying, ponderous, grounded nature of bogs, and asked what does a move towards horizontality, both in terms of seeking connection, and as a challenge to hierarchy, offer? Can the bog’s slow, resistant, resilient fragilities inform or critique the urgency to ‘fix’ things?
Exploring the links between the creation and healing of damage in human bodies – and peatlands
They have also hosted and recorded two conversations to explore links between healing of human bodies and peatland landscapes. This was a response to their observations of the physical processes of restoration. They were struck by the conceptual, material and gestural connectivity in the materials and actions of care for wounded lands and bodies, and by the linked ways that damage is caused and healing is articulated and nurtured in these contrasting contexts of medicine and ecology. You can read more about their talks here.
One talk focused on wound care. The artists instigated a trip to Yorkshire Peat Partnership’s experimental restoration site Fleet Moss to host a conversation on site between Dr Una Adderley, a nurse who has specialised in tissue viability clinical practice, education, and research for over 20 years, and was until recently Director of the National Wound Care Strategy Programme (NWCSP) and Jenny Sharman, who was Peatland Restoration Officer for Yorkshire Peat Partnership for six years before moving into a training and managerial role.
They discussed how the creation and healing of damage in human bodies and peatlands are (differently) subject to flows: of liquids, of capital, of hearsay, of power. In bringing these topics and persons together the artists were able to explore new connective territory between these ordinarily separate spheres. As the artists and their guests examined the micro intra-actions of peat, water, sphagnum and coir, they discussed the macro conditions of finance, attention, institutions, bodies and materials. The second talk focused on the phenomena of the microbiome. The artists facilitated a structured conversation in the Department of Geography at the University of Leeds between expert in gut microbiota Dr Caroline Chilton, a microbiologist in the Leeds Institute for Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Lee Brown Professor of Aquatic Science and Cat Moody, NERC Independent Research Fellow, both of the School of Geography, University of Leeds. Together they enquired how the health of microbial communities in human bodies.
A chapter in a new book
The artists have also been working with Josh Cohen, Research Fellow in the School of Earth and Environment and Jenny Sharman, from Yorkshire Peat Partnership, on a co-authored chapter ‘Wellbeing and Boggy Thinking’ for a new title ‘Handbook of Health and Environmental Humanities’ to be published by Routledge.
Pictured: Artists in talks at the University of Leeds
