Hindsight blinds; everything that could have happened, and many things that did, are cast into shadow as one path is chosen.
Woodland is a system in which people historically integrated with their environment, maintaining and gaining substance and sustenance from the relationship. Today, we are looking again to discover this connection with a more natural environment. How do we reintegrate? How can we rebuild a relationship with the woodland?
Bexhill Highwoods is a designated SSSI (Site of Specific Scientific Interest) in respect of specific species and the biodiversity of the habitat. It achieved and maintains this status due to the people of Bexhill, in particular, the volunteers and members of the Highwoods Preservation Society.
The Highwoods Volunteers work to maintain access to the woods by clearing and maintaining the marked pathways through the woods, extending and maintaining the car park and disabled access. They work to maintain the biodiversity of the woodland. They control invasive species like rhododendrons, clear the bracken and provide information and talks for visitors to the wood.
Artist in Residence, Bexhill Highwoods
I volunteer in Bexhill Highwoods which gives me a participant perspective on the working of the woods and the Society. My involvement in the woodland as an Artist in Residence speaks of broader systems interests. I am looking at the complexity of systems and how investigating this complexity promotes an understanding of change. I look at how adjusting one element of the system impacts the wider system. While maintaining access for local people is a goal, careful management is needed to ameliorate the negative impact numbers of people can have on biodiversity which is central to the wood’s SSSI status and its existence as a charity that maintains access.
To investigate this idea, I am concentrating on making tensile structures. Years ago I made tensile structures using steel, wire and canvas; materials that provided precision and control. Now I am using greenwood poles, sourced from the Sweet Chestnut coppices of the Highwood – a reminder of the wood’s early industrial heritage – and rope.
Greenwood Tensile Structures
These materials are part of the natural system of the woodland; an energy system of roots, trees, branches and leaves that sustains our planet. The tree is an essential part of an ecosystem that keeps us all alive. To take the greenwood poles with their curves and imperfections gives an organic approach to making a tensile structure which is more often viewed as a model for architectural precision. As I work with the Greenwood, I want to make as little change as possible to its natural state – this even leads me to drill holes in the wood using hand tools rather than power tools. This is not a return to the simplicity of nature because the natural world is not simple, it is a complex, organic system both dynamic and robust yet vulnerable to change. Specifically, the changes we bring; as mentioned earlier the sheer number of people accessing an environment can be enough to destroy the very thing that draws us in. This can’t be left to chance; informed and conscious management is required.
Systems Change HIVE
Systems Change HIVE, hosted by the University of Brighton School of Media in response to current environmental challenges is an ongoing project that brings together experts in sustainable development, post-growth economics and climate communications with university arts and media students and established, practising artists.
My involvement as an artist in this group is driven by my interest in the complexity of systems and their impact on people. I believe that to bring about effective change you must communicate the positive potential of the changes required in our current systems to meet the challenges that face us.
While my working title for work produced in the Highwoods is “Lost in Execution” I found the overlap with the Systems Change Hive project interesting and productive. Creating a shift in the planned residency work has been positive for both streams.
Hidden Paths is the working title of upcoming exhibitions which is the next stage of the System Change HIVE project. I wonder why a path becomes hidden. Why should we believe there is a path when we have not been there? Can a path to a place we have not been ever be clear? Everything that can happen, and many that will, are cast into shadow by the possibilities of the future and we can only leave a clear path as we move into that future. Which path will be chosen?
I read recently that the Tibetan word `shul’ translates as `path’ but it was the broader translation of the word that interested me. It is a mark that indicates something that is no longer there, the mark left by a foot, the sunken lane of a `hollow way’ compressed over hundreds of years, the tendency to do things in a particular way driven by factors no longer there. All are `shul’.
