Artist residencies take many forms, and we will explore a few different approaches in the Landing Project. These range from Molly being literally resident on her own farm to one or both of us making short visits to some of the farms involved, and several other approaches in between. There is a process of exchange with those who are more typically resident on sites - in our case, farmers, and the more-than-human: livestock, plants, other life, soil. It is, perhaps, this exchange in an artist residency where the real energy and potential for transformation/creation lies, rather than solely an isolated exercise for the artist.
Ideally, I need to spend enough time in a place to begin to notice the particularities that characterise it and to feel the sense of place, its psyschogeography. To gain deeper understanding, it’s essential to find the unseen elements—its past histories, scientific data, and cultural knowledge. This understanding often requires experiencing the place under different conditions, contexts, and activities. Subtle details do not always reveal themselves without deliberate effort. Sometimes, it takes objective questioning to highlight something that might seem mundane to someone with daily experience but is actually quite extraordinary or unique. Interaction with farmers and other life on the farm will be key to unlocking pathways into areas that are not immediately obvious.
The walking and mapping process, sometimes termed deep mapping or deep topography, may also include countermapping. This involves seeking out or making tangible stories that often go unheard or challenge the established narrative or political framing. As the artist and map-maker, I get to choose what holds value and how things connect to one another.
We may need to accept that for some farms, we may only catch a glimpse of its daily life, while for others, we hope to see how the farm changes through the seasons and through the annual cycle of activities, never quite the same as the last year.
I have no preconceived plan but starting with walking and listening to the landscape is a vital first step. Then I use a variety approaches instinctively, including drawing, photography, video, sound recording, tracings, rubbings, foraging materials or making direct interventions in the landscape. Talking with and listening to people is essential too if I am to understand other perspectives.
This “data collection” is usually a first step in a process which can sometimes be slow and multi-staged requiring reflection and reworking. This methodical testing of combinations of materials and actions to yield outputs can seem almost scientific in its rigour, but I aim to allow plenty of space for expressive, random or playful approaches – where happy accidents can happen.
We will also be researching in the Shropshire Archives, Shropshire Museum collection and further afield to inform both our individual and collaborative work.
For a few years, my practice has involved using foraged materials to make inks, dyes, and pigments for drawings, paintings, textiles, printmaking and papermaking. Farmland offers an abundance of materials linking back to weaving, cordage and other traditional crafts, with opportunities to think about these from a contemporary setting.
Looking to a future where people live in closer harmony with the landscape, I am interested in drawing attention to our relationship with the materials we use in our lives. Using both organic and synthetic materials, I suggest alternative uses, not necessarily because they are a viable process but simply to highlight that everything has agency, value, interdependencies. These need to be considered in a spirit of reciprocity and respect.
Whilst thinking about the flow of materials on farms, the inputs and outputs, I noticed significant amounts of flytipping in wooded areas at both Doctor's Field and Poplar Island. I collected several discarded heavy duty plastic sacks, mostly fertilizer and building materials bags, regularly seen around farms. These were cleaned back at my studio and I began a process of weaving strips of the bags into a large fabric piece, initially plastic with plastic and then transitioning to weaving with paper made by hand with plant materials gathered from the same sites. It is a slow and ongoing process.
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