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WEAVING WITH NATURE
As we enter into the age of plastics and micro plastics I have become conscious of my own environmental impact, particularly my artistic mediums. As my work progresses and develops I find it incredibly important to not only leave no trace, but also produce only that which can return to the earth without causing harm. Nature weaving is a way that I can create
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These weavings follow on from my Masters project involving landscape, folklore and nature. Landscape in folktales is used not to represent the land itself, but as a tool to retell tales which often celebrate the natural environment and its resources. Scottish folktales are no different, and often start with an introduction in the landscape. Ossian’s poems about Fionn Mac Cumhaill and his warriors often begin with a description of the land or weather. Tam Lin opens with a description of the woods Janet is forbidden to enter, and stories around mythical beings often begin with a description of the area where they reside—kelpies and their lochs, selkies and the coast, the Ghillie Dhu and his forest. The landscape, then, acts both as setting and character.Folklore emerges out of experiences and engagement with the land and can become a collective sense of history.
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By creating works involving community stories, folklore, and other intangible heritage, but created using materials that degrade away to nothing, the woven artworks mirror their real life counterparts. Stories and folklore emerges out of experiences and engagement with the land and can become a collective sense of history. People, by nature, share stories, and will of course, share stories about the world around them. These stories then becoming part of the collective folk memory of an area. ‘Memory, supported by narrative, is a fundamental characteristic of the human condition,’ (Renfrew, 2003). But when the stories stop being told they become lost. In the same way these weavings, without some form of conservation, will also fade away back into the landscape.
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Other parts of this body of work incorporates working with other natural materials and leaving artworks in the landscape for people to possibly discover or disintegrate back into the land.
