I’ve clearly been interested in the relationship between nature and how we treat it within city environments, looking back through my archive and specifically through the series Unfamiliar/Familiar the most prevalent topic of exploration in nature.
Before I thought it was something else but looking at the images I made over a period of 3-4 years I was seeking something else that now seems very clear to me. I suppose that’s the power of hindsight. Taking a moment to reflect and to really find the starting point of the project will help navigate what I do from this point onwards.
The images in this post were captured in London and New York from 2016-2019, and I was preoccupied with how nature is treated as an addition or a supplement to the landscape, rarely given space or time to fully find its place. However, nature is neither of those things and actually pre-dates our (humans) existence and that is something that we forget and take for granted.
Hence, why we have the climate crisis, a situation of humans’ selfish desire to conquer for our purposes. The industrialisation of the Western city’s across the UK from the 19th century onwards changed our relationship to nature and how we see it as part of our lives.
When we see nature treaded as an inconvenience or something we have to work around it shows a contradiction, we need nature as a form of sustenance but we can also see it nearly as an object to bend to our will and need. That’s is something that resonates with me as a Black woman who was born and living in London.
My mother’s relationship with nature was very different from mine and this is also something that I have reflected upon, as she grew up in rural Jamaica she was borough up in a rich landscape with a rooted sense of where it was from. She was also brought up with and around the legacy of slavery and colonialism by the British. I grew up surrounded by the foundation that was built upon the enslavement of my ancestors. So now I am trying to negotiate how I situate myself within this landscape of London, and the rest of the UK.
Perhaps this is what the project is about and has been about all along.
First, I must establish what I believe nature to be within the context of my experience. And then I can use the tools to understand how other communities of colour negotiate their relationship with the landscape of London and the rest of the UK. I will have to specs more time exploring, reflecting, and making sure I am asking myself the right questions
