MA in Art & Ecology

Spinney: Connection, History, and Folklore

The moment I stepped into the thicket I could feel the magic. The smell of moss and history floated in the air and settled on my skin. The light that was grey was now yellow green. I had the sudden and mandatory urge to dance and so I did.  I was just a hop, skip and a jump from the road, but it felt as though I had stepped out of time and into the Tír na nÓg.

My artistic practice is rooted in the magic, mystery and importance of trees and life underneath them. Spinneys, Copses, Groves, Woodlands, thickets, etc.  hold the histories of the people and animals that inhabit the same areas. These areas and biological forces within hold onto the surrounding environments histories, folklore and relationships between the land and its inhabitants. Nature keeps these records long after the inhabitants have gone.

Morton explains that we are not separate from nature but instead we are deeply linked to everything around us. Morton introduces the idea of the "mesh," describing it as "a vast, sprawling mesh of interconnection without a definite center or edge" (Morton, 2010, p. 28,29). The mesh concept highlights the web that connects all forms of existence. It suggests that every element in nature is intertwined. This idea stirs ideas for compositions that highlight the hidden connections within natural landscapes and capture the link between life and death.

Manchan Magan explains in Listen to the Land Speak that of the many trees that inhabited Ireland five are often “referred to in poetry and folklore. These trees were believed to represent transition points or axial lines between this land and realms beyond”. These trees would have had guardians to protect them. The most important tree was said to have roots that reached into the underworld and branches that soared into the heavens. It is this thought that shows how trees unite the past, the supernatural with the present physical. This tree was most likely an ash Magan says, and its fruits are said to be able to “unlock the energies or wisdom or life forces of this world”. I regard trees as our protectors as much or more as humans are the protectors of them.

My practice highlights these connections and enchant viewers with the magic, beauty, and responsibility of nature. The bedrock of my practice is exploration; traversing and sitting within the landscape, capturing, and transforming what I felt into a mutation of time, and materiality. Through these artworks I aim to repair and rebind, in some way, the detachment that exists between humanity and the natural world. I also aim to renew the mysticism and awe nature bestows on those who take the time to pause and receive it.

My process is deliberately experimental. Every image I take and manipulate either digitally or by various alternative developing and toning processes is another moment I take to pause and think about the world around me. I use both digital and analog cameras as well as traditional and digitally created images and then tone those images with natural dyes extracted from local fauna. My goal is to create work that not only create pieces around the mystery in nature but also invites conversation over the fragile and ever-evolving landscape. How does the light hit the leaves and cascade down upon the leaf covered with dirt. How quickly does the light dim the moment I venture into a stand? What do I smell while embracing the moss-covered stone within a thicket?  Each exploration is another chance for me to get closer to the magic that resides within the land and provides more knowledge on how to create artwork that represents its needs.

I have recently begun to dive into the production of film, and this has increased my awareness of the sounds, light, and colors of the landscape. My pace has slowed, and I take more time within the spaces I inhabit. Inspired by the practice of Clare Langan as well as Maeve Stone, whose work both highlights environmental concerns with cinematic genius, I created a first film highlighting the beauty and risk with humanity’s relationship with nature. In Clare Langan’s “The Floating World” the relationship between humanity and the world is highlighted from its aspirations, relationship, and fall. This is all done in a subtle stunning visual and auditory magnificence that I aspire to.  In Maeve Stones “The Last Harvest” humanity has found themselves down to one harvest and it has been infected with an invasive species. The film details what she does to try and save the land for the children.

My practice aligns with artist Barbara Takenaga and her intricate, radiant compositions. Her ability to merge structure with playfulness as well as her use of repetition and movement are both attributes that I seek out with my photography. The unpredictability of experimental photographic techniques, where patterns emerge through chemical reactions and environmental interferences as well as Barbaras decision to display both the microscopic and the cosmic encourage me to consider scale and abstraction within my own imagery, and to explore how alternative processes can create immersive, otherworldly landscapes.

Remedios Varo’s ability to blend the supernatural, science, and symbolism resonates with my own exploration of photography as a medium that can capture both the visible and the unseen. Her fascination with the cosmos, transformation, and the passage of time encourages me to further experiment with layering, texture, and repetition and this might reveal hidden rhythms in nature. Varo’s work reminds me that art can be both scientific and spiritual, structured yet intuitive.

One of my current installation pieces is named Liminal and is a chair that is neither a chair nor a tree. It is stuck in between two worlds or maybe not stuck but in transition. But is the chair transitioning into a tree or a tree changing into a chair? Or perhaps it is that the chair is just now part of the tree? In the same way I also see my work as existing in between two worlds. It is neither fiction nor nonfiction, neither here nor there, it is shifting, transitioning.

My Work exists in an in between space. It is not purely photographic but also alchemy. At its foundation, my practice has been about connection, about time, and about transition. My goal is to create work that not only create pieces around the mystery in nature but also invites conversation over the fragile and ever-evolving landscape. I hope that my artwork demonstrates the need for connection, respect and curiosity.

                                                            Bibliography

Langan, Clare The Floating World 2013 https://www.clarelangan.com/portfolio/the-floating-world

Magan, M.  Listen to the Land Speak, 2022  Dublin: Gill Books.

Morton, T. The Ecological Thought, 2010. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Stone, Maeve The Last Harvest, 2024 https://www.maevestone.com/the-last-harvest

Takenaga, Barbara. 2021. Barbara Takenaga at White Plains Metro North Train Station. white plains. https://www.dcmooregallery.com/artists/barbara-takenaga

Varo, Remedios. 1952. Woman or Spirit of The Night. Mexico City, Mexico.