Interview with Zoe Palmer from the dream(ing) field lab

Marie Smith November 4, 2021

The dream(ing) field lab started as a way to share different knowledge. systems and to create a space for women and femmes of African heritage. Speaking to Zoe from the dream(ing) field lab felt like a nice end to the artist interviews which I have conducted over the past few months. Each artist has given their thoughtful insights for me to reflect upon and I have been grateful and found myself feeling better intend with myself and my project.

Zoe elaborated on her relationship with nature and how she has never seen a separation between herself and the landscape, she has a bee-keeping practice which meant that she learned to work with nature and not against it in a way that we have been taught to see nature as an objective space to overcome.

This point of view is something that I have been reflecting on more and I have been using self-portraits as a way to medicate and document my relationship with nature - in particular with the landscape of my local park in South London. Zoe also talked about elements of the landscape such as fungi/moss and trees and how they function within their own eco-systems - having an awareness of this can hopefully enable us to see nature as not just an isolated objective space that is operating from us, we must learn to acknowledge and understand that nature is not here to serve us and our aspirations.

Zoe’s curiosity and learning about the ancestral knowledge has led her to work in community settings to share and feel agency over nature - this starting with bee-keeping and doing workshops with young people in nature and has been extended in the dream(ing) filed lab which is a collective that I came across on Twitter.

After going to one of their workshops, I felt a sense of community and calmness that I had been seeking lacked in particular around the conversation about climate change and nature. The concept of healing and healing within nature is something that I talked about with Myah Jeffers.

Our conversation focused on the community as I was curious how working as a collective has enabled Zoe and the dream(ing) field lab to think and visualise the conversation about climate change and ecology, in particular with black women and femmes. As I want to create a workshop in the future with a specific focus on communities of colour, I think the methodologies and ideas of the dream(ing) field lab have been a good experience to reflect upon in any future projects I embark on. especially when I am thinking about language and also how to create a welcoming space that will enable everyone to feel engaged and open to talk about climate change, ecology, and their relationship to nature.

Self portrait made in Brockwell Park as part of WIP Sequence. October 2021. ©Marie Smith

Interview with Yan Wang Preston - Who are we, we are nature?

Marie Smith September 24, 2021

Speaking to Yan Wang Preston provided another space for me to pivot into. One that was unfamiliar to me as Yan’s work focuses on the landscape of China and its multifaceted identity that is usually seen in a very binary context when thinking about how China is presented in the mainstream media. Dr. Yan Wang Preston moved to the UK from China in 2005 after completing her training in Clinical Medicine at Fudan University, Shanghai, China. Upon moving to the UK, Yan took up photography and in 2018 she completed her practice-based Ph.D. at the University of Plymouth under the supervision of Liz Wells and Jem Southam.

I was very intrigued by Yan’s methodical and precise style, her landscape photographs were not just aesthetic but move the landscape away from being an objective space to a subjective ream for me to consider it as a place beyond and separate from myself. After asking my first question, Yan asked or more so posed) questions to me from a poem, ‘Who are we, we are nature’?

This question was not completely removed from what Season Butler said to me about thinking beyond nature being the physical context of ‘naturalistic’ and trying to encompass everything as a form of nature. Yan’s question was to provoke me to think about my physicality and body in relation to nature. Beyond my behavior in the context of climate change, I try to be responsible as much as I can, but do I see myself as something that is natural?

Yan’s practice and outlook are informed by Chines philosophy, that we as humans are part of the world and that there are multiple microworlds that are visible and invisible to us but we are all connected. This thinking goes against a capitalist mindset, for me as it means that nature is not seen as an object to exploit and subjugate for our own uses.

From researching her series Mother River, I noted that she had added maps and GPS altitudes, in an attempt for others to go and experience the landscape for themselves and in my opinion to ensure that the landscape is not just seen as an objective space devoid of history and nuance. On reflection, I did ask Yan about community and the about other things but I think the most profound thing that I resonate with me with my own research is her philosophy and outlook towards her work.

The slowness of the analog process that she is being considerate and her academic background means that the level of research means that she is engaged in finding answers to existing problems and finding ways to provide an alternative or a way for us the think about our agency and the hierarchical structures that means that we have a limited viewpoint of nature.

Photos from inside a tree leaves in Brockwell Park, shot using Ilford HP5 Plus 400 film and developed at home using chemicals

Realising this means that I must again be more conscious of my own gaze and the limitations I have been placing on myself and my practice, I am aware of my body in these spaces but I am not really present, distracted mostly by having my camera with me, this tool creates another lens to see the world in without me considering what it is I am looking for?

The two photos featured in my blog are spaces that I go to often, the repeated steps that I take are familiar and ensure that I feel safe and I have never thought about mapping out my steps or sharing the walks that I take so that they could perhaps become a point of conversation. I was also thinking that this would be a way for me to find that connection to the space beyond the objective perspective I have been taking so far.

I need to be conscious of what I am doing, recently I feel I have been wondering in a daze and I feel a bit stuck and unable to articulate what I want to achieve, perhaps I have moved too far away from the initial remit of what I had proposed but perhaps this diversion will create more clarity for me. I am quite focused on the process at the moment but I am aware that at the end of this I would like to have some sort of an idea of what the ‘product’ could be.

My gaze has not shifted yet and I was glad that this interview acted as a type of intervention to my own philosophy and provided me with another nuanced perspective that I need to think about. I will be taking a break from shooting, and will probably pick it up in a few months once I have consolidated my thoughts a bit more.

Reflecting on community

Marie Smith August 21, 2021

After a year and a half of lockdowns due to the pandemic, which involved not being around anyone (except my partner) for a long period of time; I have had two trips recently, with two different friendship groups. One is an old friend of over 10 years and the other is a more recent friendship that has to fruition over the past two years or so.

In early August, I went on a walking trip with Ameena Rojee and Aster Reem David. I had known Aster for a couple of years since she participated in my project Whispering for help.

Since, then we have cultivated a strong friendship, supportive and reciprocal as we navigate the world as two photographers and women of colour with an interest in nature and ecology in our practice.

This felt strange thinking about it but this was the first time I had met Ameena, we had been speaking for a few months via email. This had then been extended to a WhatsApp group between the three of us, which then moved online, and finally, we met in person.

Meeting Ameena felt very normal, it was not strange at all and the three of us resonated well. Ameena and Aster do have more energy than me and I think I was the quietest of the three of us.

We met at Chilworth station which was accessible to all of us via train and car, we set off for a walk around the Gunpowder Mills that once resided in the area. A once thriving community that provided ammunition for the UK has now been left bare but with elements of the structured, gaps for us to project our own narratives and preconceived ideas about the residents and their existence.

As three photographers we were not offended when one of us strolled off in mid-conversation to capture an image and we also acted as models for each other, the weather was a bit dreary but this did not stop us from making the most of the situation and it was an enjoyable walk.

I was surprised by the variety of the location that we came across in Chilworth, deep forest, green ferns, sandy walking paths, and a church at the top of a massive hill that seemed quaint. I did not expect this from a place only an hour outside of London but this is a testament to the variety that the UK has.

The walking paths were sometimes hard to negotiate and we were prohibited from entering certain spaces or given a warning if we came across a precarious path.

Access to land in the UK is not spoken about much, although we are under the impression that there is plenty of space for us to explore, realistically most of it is fenced off and used for farmland or private property. I recently bought a book by Guy Shrubsole which addresses the history of land ownership and how we - the 99% who don’t own land can reclaim agency over these segregated areas.

Once I have read this book I will be reflecting on this more, as knowing this information now, I cannot ignore it and the implications it has on my relationship with the landscape of the UK.

One thing that was different for me, not just being in a group but also being around other people of colour in a non-city environment. This might have looked unusual to some and I did clock some people looking at us longer than usual or adjusting their body language when we walked towards them. I did wonder what the difference would have been if we were white or if we didn’t have our cameras.

Having Aster and Ameena with me did provide me with some solace - a way to feel connected to a community also I didn’t feel scared or anxious as I knew they would not leave me and we were conscious of how we negotiated the landscape as a group and as individuals.

I felt safe.

The next challenge for me is to do a walk like this by myself, again. I spoke about my relationship with nature in an earlier blog in which I documented work and I am making work around this subject as part of West Coast Photo Festival. This experience was positive and I will be working towards building up my confidence to do a photo walk by myself.

One thing that I think I need to consider is how my body and spirit are connected with the landscape. Having a camera is actually very distracting and you can lose that tangled connection to the land as your brain is engaging in other activities. I also think that it would be worth me addressing some anxieties around safety and my consciousness of what I want and what I need to work towards, not just within my practice but within myself.

Self portrait made in Dungeness, developed at home with plant based materials, August 2021, ©Marie Smith

A few weeks later I went on another trip, again not far from London to a place in East Sussex called Bodiam which is close to Hasting. I went camping with my partner Maciej and two of my friends and another couple Laura and Reuben. I had known Laura for over ten years and Reuben for six years. This was my first time camping since my friend’s 30th birthday which was seven years ago.

The pandemic meant that there has been no opportunity to go away abroad, although I am double vaccinated I am aware of the many variants developing and I still believe that precautions need to be taken until the majority of the world is fully vaccinated.

The camping in Bodiam was very different and also much less about me being a photographer with a camera and more about me being on holiday, although this didn’t stop me from bringing two cameras and lots of colour and black and white film.

The weather was atrocious so we didn’t actually spend much time in Bodiam which was a shame but as Reuben and Laura had a car we went on explorations not far - to Dungeness, Camber Sands, and Bexhill-On-Sea. The coastal locations were varied and also provided different experiences, blaring sunshine in Dungeness and Bexhill but the hostility of wind bound all of the locations together.

Visiting Dungeness was a highlight as we went to Dereck Jarmen’s home - Prospect Cottage. Dungeness is like no other place I had been to before in the UK, it was sublime and very strange. The landscape was rocky, with no tall buildings, trees, or soil. Boats littered the landscape and you would find plant life in abundance flourishing under the rocky surface, it was truly stunning to see plant life thriving in a location that looked bleak. Everyone lived in fisherman-style cottages, some fancier than others.

The nuclear power station was an ominous presence and one of the tallest buildings around, we spotted a few lighthouses and walked towards them, not getting any closer and being beaten down by the constant wind we changed tracks and walked further down the road before stopping for lunch where we rested. It was not cold and despite the wind, the sun felt warm and we all left with a slight glow from our walk.

Being at Prospect Cottage and seeing the care and attention that Jarmen had taken into cultivating his home led me to think again about Jamaica Kincaid’s garden in Vermont, with gardens there is a philosophy and intention behind them that is meant to be communicated to you.

This never occurred to me until recently. It’s weird! Just how you can overlook so much.

Jarmen’s garden consisted of circular congregations of plants and perennials - hardy plant life that could withstand the weather during the changing season. The smell and colours were a triumph and he also intertwined bits of metals and iron into sculptures that intertwined with the plant life and were not in tension with it.

Being here made me think about my interview with Season Butler and her talking about what we consider to be ‘nature’ ‘not nature’ and that Jarmen’s garden was a perfect symphony of this juxtaposition, Jarmen had made a deliberate attempt, not to this distinction and walking around the garden you would never think the corroded iron sculptures looked out of place, in fact, they added vibrancy and colour. Burnt red, orange, and deep browns remind me these materials are a part of nature.

There is no distinction.

I recently started to read Modern Nature a diary that Jarmen wrote whilst living and finessing Prospect Cottage over the course of two years after his diagnosis with HIV in the late 1980s. Like Kincaid, Jarmen reflects on his childhood and his introduction ton to plant life and nature and how this has impacted how he views his home and garden at Prospect Cottage.

The personal account also provides me with more insight into his day-to-day grind with the garden and, the various storms and changes of weather that he had to grapple with. Like Kincaid talking about her plant seed trip to China and how her garden would deteriorate in cold winter months in Vermont, I felt that the garden told me a lot about them and about their identities.

So this trip was very different from Chilworth, I felt more of an internal conversation happening, more threads have been coming together and the different experiences have shown more light onto what I have still to learn and grapple with.

I am not sure where my practice is heading and I am trying not to get caught up with that yet, being present in the moment is more important and is providing me with lots of consideration.

Dereck Jarmen’s garden, Prospect Cottage, August 2021 ©Marie Smith

This collage is made from a set of different self portrait’s that were developed at home with plant based developer (Tomato plant leaves).I made a mistake with developing the film but I have decided to embrace the error and work with instead of against the image. Self portraits taken in Derek Jarmen’s garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, ©Marie Smith, August 2021 — This collage is made from a set of different self portrait’s that were developed at home with plant based developer (Tomato plant leaves).
I made a mistake with developing the film but I have decided to embrace the error and work with instead of against the image. Self portraits taken in Derek Jarmen’s garden at Prospect Cottage, Dungeness, ©Marie Smith, August 2021

Again with the plant-based developers, I am making at home, mistakes are still being made and I am finding ways to continue to embrace them and find new ways to communicate the nuances and beauty of nature. I might switch things up and start using my medium format camera, so more depth and also be a case I am able to be a bit more accurate.

Interview with Season Butler - we discuss her novel Cygnet, community and what is nature and not nature?

Marie Smith August 12, 2021

I’ve been doing a lot recently, more than I can process so I will try to do one thing at a time. My research has made a rapid growth of late, elements and ideas that I had struggled to articulate now seem to be coming together and I can question what I knew prior to starting research. It seems as though my understanding was quite shallow but this is an opportunity to question and inform myself.

As part of my research, I have reached out to photographers, researchers, writers, and artists with a particular focus on speaking to people of colour to gain insight into their relationship with nature, environmentalism, and landscape. What do these terms mean to them and these subjects have informed their practice?

Last week, I interviewed Season Butler over Zoom, Season is one of five artists that I’ll be talking to over the next few months. Next week I will be in conversation with Myah Jeffers.

I also have interviews lined up interviews with Yan Wang Preston and Zoe Palmer from the dream(ing) field lab.

Photo taken from a walk to Seven Sisters Cliff, July 2021 ©Marie Smith

Season Butler is a London-based writer, performance artist, and teacher, and recently completed a Ph.D. in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. Season’s debit novel Cygnet was released in 2019 and we spent time talking about her research behind Cygnet and also about her interest in environmentalism, nature, and climate change.

Season was born and grew up in Washington, DC/USA, and part of her childhood was spent preoccupied with environmentalist movements, such as Earth Day. Having a parent who studied herbalist traditions meant that she was brought up in a household that was conscious of nature and plant life. Her parent’s politics/ethics have shaped a mindful awareness of nature and how nature is an intrinsic part of life. Nature is not just part of a rural environment and is not something that is not removed from the city environment.

We spoke about the discourse of environmentalism and climate change, the effects this has on people in the global south in particular, and how capitalism has exacerbated and created uneven power dynamics and structures that means that exploitation of plant life, people, and resources will continue. Climate Change is not the great equaliser and although it is a global issue others are more vulnerable the need for material and pollution that governs our lives are the ultimate means that pre-existing equality is continued rather than address with a way to resolve it.

The interconnection between capitalism and climate change means that we have been walking towards the destruction of the planet and its resources for many decades but this does not mean that the climate change movement is a new phenomenon. Season spoke about engaging in the complexities of the contemporary climate crisis, and that means addressing the intersection between class, race, and age.

Season talked about the history of environmentalism, her awareness of the movement that preceded in particular in the post-war era, and how the movement is in its current iteration has influenced by previous movements and writers. Season cited Silent Spring by Rachel Carson which was written in 1962 when Carson was in her late 40s. There is a perception that people over 65 were not environmentalists but what choices were presented to them - what structures perhaps meant that they were not given choices to take the environment into consideration.

Season also spoke about how the community can be seen as a unit of human survival, a system of people that are considered towards each other and are invested in your survival. Not forgetting the need to thrive even under difficult circumstances. Community is also about being aware of your responsibility toward their survival means that community is not a linear concept and can be quite broad as well.

Season got me to think about what is considered ‘nature’ and ‘not nature’ and the fact that a beehive can be seen as natural but a skyscraper might not be seen as natural although both structures are made from raw material and house a community. Cityscapes are also landscapes and how can I be more expansive with what I consider ‘natural’? We also talked about the lack of access to green space and this got me thinking about why green spaces are so important in cities and how places like Brockwell Park have provided me with an introduction to nature which still continues.

Safety is a concern and for some communities, being in open green spaces might not feel safe or welcoming, this does vary in the context but this can affect your feeling of being from the land and having a relationship with the land.

Lastly, I asked Season what her hopes were for the future and she talked about having effective leadership and finding the most effective ways for us are able to thrive and take action to fight against the essential problems with climate change. To be bold and efficient so that one day the Climate Change movement and so many protest movements can be made obsolete.

My conversation with Season has provoked new questions for me, some I had not considered before and some that I had dismissed entirely. For example, how have I decided what is nature and what is not nature? What preconceived ideas have I been carrying around which has been affecting my practice and how can I be more open to what is ‘nature’ and ‘what is not nature’?

The conversation around climate change is not new and the relationship between Black and other ethnic minority communities is not new either. this is something that I have resolved within myself and I have found enough work and writing to solidify that we have a history and a discourse within this canon.

I now need to ensure that I find a spoke to utilise for myself, a space that resonates with me, and somewhere that I am able to build a trusting relationship. I am looking at the end of this research to make a series about a specific space with societies people and until now I have dismissed London but maybe I have been hasty and I have not given enough time to this concept.

Cyanotype made during Cyanotype workshop at South London Gallery in August 2021 with Alice Cazenave who is a member of The Sustainable Darkroom. The flowers and plant leaves were picked from the Orozco Garden in South London Gallery, ©Marie Smith

And finally to finish off this week’s blog, I have now completed my workshop at South London Gallery and I have learnt a lot of methodologies and practices that I will carry through with. I have already started to develop black and white film at home with my own plant based developer. I have also learnt some more nuances regarding cyantypes, how you can bleach them (using soda crystals) and dying them (using anything from rosemary to green tea bags).

On reflection with my conversation with Season, this cyanotype was made from plants, flowers found in South London Gallery garden, a wonderful juxtaposition between concrete and nature growth around through and in relation to the concrete rather than against it.

So I can certainly find myself urging towards something that I already thought of but had discredited but I think I need more time to decide if I will carry on this trajectory or whether I should become more focused on what is around and in front of me - can the city landscape provide me with more answers than I anticipated. More exploration will need to be done I think before I can answer.

Shifting focus

Marie Smith May 14, 2021

After an intense interview for a Ph.D., I have been thinking about the questions that have been posed to me and the context of my nature. I have a habit of doing too much and trying g to get different strings of ideas together to create something new. This means that my research can be sporadic and chaotic which is not something I ever thought I was.

However this makes sense as someone with the neurodiverse community (I am Dyspraxic) I sometimes find it hard to focus and compartmentalise my ideas, this is something that I’d like to focus on and I believe the DYCP grant will help me do this.

So, what to decide now? It seems I have two avenues to pursue, one is nature and mental health and the impact that eco-anxiety has on communities of colour. With fragmented patches of land/parks which are in the control of local councils, some park has been closed to local communities or in disrepair.

Another pathway is nature and belonging, exploring what is nature and how can we access this with so few opportunities due to money or having no access to a car/train. Feeling overwhelmed by lack of equipment of ideas that nature and English landscape is inherently hostile.

I also feel that I have perhaps not been thinking about what exactly I am going to visualise my research, will it be in the form of photographs? Of people or places? Or will be films or interviews? How do I see myself working in analogue or digital?

I will be looking into making my practice moire sustainable and have bookmarked some courses that I would like to go to, being able to invest in my practice will help me feel more confident and I hope to refine my thought processes more. I’ve also booked a spot to visit Stuart Hall Library which excites me, it’s been a while and I miss the quiet and contemplation that a library offers.

I will also aim to do a post at least once a week over the new few months. This will also help me focus and force me to verbalise my process to myself and also to you.

An introduction to my research into environmentalism

Marie Smith May 8, 2021

This blog will be a space for me to reflect on my research as well as document who I am talking to, what I am reading, and who I am making images of - whether that be people or places. I will be engaging with a myriad of methods to inform myself and my practice.

In April 2021, I was awarded a Developing your Creative Practice (DYCP) grant to research the impact of environmentalism on people of colour, a subject that is new to me but is something that I have been wishing to investigate in my practice. As a Black woman living in a polluted city, I know that I and other communities of colour will be disproportionately affected by climate change and pollution.

I will spend the next six months researching and engaging with this topic and seeing how nature and environmentalism can be engaging people from communities of colour. I want to find people in my local community of Brixton, South London to see how they think and feel about climate change.

As a Visual Artist whose primary medium is analogue photography, I believe that I must take responsibility for finding more sustainable ways in my practice. Again, this will help me renew and engage with methods that can be utilised to make my practice more creative as well as cost-saving whilst trying to minimalise my impact on the environment.

I will be using my experience with project managing Whispering for help to network with communities in Brixton and beyond. I have found a plethora of resources on social media and it has been great to see people of colour working to decolonise nature and environmentalism. I will be going to practical workshops and will find ways to make environmentalism engaging and relevant to people of colour.

I suspect I will make mistakes and will find the prospect daunting at times but I am ready to begin a new chapter and to find a way to communicate the importance of climate change and environmentalism, this subject is beyond urgent for me and for people from my community.