A Residency involves interaction between place and artist; exploration and development of areas of a shared vocabulary. Ideas inherent and accumulated within the residency interact as part of a creative process. Interaction with people within the environment extends the opportunities to develop, explore and share the communicative quality of the developed vocabulary.
Making as a mode of thought engages the process directly with the interrelated complexity of the physical world. Constructing 3D structures to explore and communicate ideas, involves you not only in the process of “making it work” but these interactions feedback into the awareness and development of the ideas.
Searching for and cropping coppiced Sweet Chestnut poles from a managed stand, close to where I build the structures, is more than physical work. Their weight and physicality impose their own constraints alongside the tools available for cutting, the size and form of the available wood. The effort feeds my perception and influences my movement through the woods
It was wonderful just being in the Highwoods; the sounds, smells, the sun and wind, the ebb and flow of the wildlife as it decides I can be ignored but hides in response to passing dog walkers.
People stop to talk and ask about the work; it pleased me how quickly they understood the structures as a metaphor for interdependence. Interdependence leads to a discussion of the degree to which we are dependent on one another and the myth of “independence” an often unachievable goal.
Coppiced wood grows quickly and can support greater biodiversity than `wildwoods’ – we only see the echoes, the potential of a symbiotic relationship with nature. Independence is a convenient myth; a cosmetic lie. Life as we know it is bound in DNA interdependence – this is the truth at its core. We occupy a crucial position of responsibility in this ecosphere.
The interdependent complex network of life that we call “nature” is the critical infrastructure on which our lives and quality of life depends. We have in the past occupied positive niches (nodes) in our ecosphere yet are currently in the process of destroying the ability of the system to support life.
Complex systems cannot be viewed as if we are external to the system – we must see them as participant observers. Accepting the potential to distort that participant observation can create, I decided to build a series of tensile structures which are implicitly interdependent and complex structures and so connect with the underlying complexity of the system in the woodland. Working within the woodland the intent was to consider our need to reconnect with our natural environment and establish a sense of interdependence.
It was important to me that I built in a clearing, in the Highwoods, using basic materials, mostly found in the wood.
The need to recognise the interdependent, complex quality of systems and systems change.
Knowledge of a model, system or idea of how something works can distort what we see. All such descriptions of the complexity of natural and other systems are wrong; some are useful, others become destructive. The woodland and its current existence speak not only of the complexity of systems but of the destructive application of simplistic models. The woodland was due to be sold to build a caravan park, it was an expenditure which derived no income for the local council and was not a required provision. Its survival is down to the rejection of such simplistic models by a small group of people willing to fight for its continuation as a public resource.
As I worked in the wood, the idea of systems, hidden paths and chosen pathways revolved around three themes:
The need, not to attribute blame but to recognise where we are and how we got here.
People recognise the importance of places like the Highwoods, the next step is recognising how elements of the way we live and the systems we accept threaten much more than these natural spaces. Understanding, not just the things that are unsustainable but the systems that brought them into existence and perpetuate them, is, essential to managing change.
The need to identify how we want things to be and how to get there
There is a quality to being in the woodland that reminds us of the importance of experiences outside of a consumer society. This is not a rejection of current society or a return to our past, it’s a step in identifying what is really important to us. There are important things we can and should keep and new things and ways of working to move towards as well as things which are unsustainable. We need to identify these and move towards positive systems change.
I would like to end this review of 2019 with a thank you to everyone who engaged with the work and consistently took the ideas not only in the direction I hoped but helped in expanding my understanding of and engagement with the ideas. A special thank you to the pupils of Hellingly School and the children of Amberley Forest School for their enthusiasm in sharing, creating and exploring their own tensile structures, also the ladies who interacted with the work in Highwoods by dancing with and among the structures.
I intend to return to the Highwoods in 2020 to develop and explore further the idea of our interdependence and systems by creating more complex tensile structures within a natural environment; visible and hidden.
