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

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.

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

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

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.

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

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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.

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

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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.

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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

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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.

My imaginary garden

A few months ago I noticed this independent succulent had started growing separately from the main succulent plant that I had. I had somehow managed to cultivate itself with very little attention paid to it.

After my surprise (and delight) I managed to root the plant in water and planted it again in succulent soil and left it to grow. It is flushing, and I am happy to see that I was able to provide support and nourishment. I have many indoor plants, as a substitute for a lack of garden and also for a lack of knowledge of how to look after a garden. Reading Jamaica Kincaid has taught me how laborious, expire, and all-consuming it is. One day I would like to have a garden but for now, I have my plants.

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I have also been thinking about how I can create a link from my previous series into this research, is there a way I can link the two and also reflect on my awareness of environmentalism and nature - establishing what it means to me will hopefully create a context and conversation when I speak to others.

So during an exhibition at Dulwich Picture gallery, I spotted these Sensitive plant seeds and decided to grow my own Sensitive plant (botanical name: Mimosa podica). The seeds were soaked overnight and planted the next day, with lots of light and water, within a week I saw little shoots poking through the soil, quickly and the plant has continued its rapid growth (see examples below, three weeks growth).

Sensitive to the touch, any contact with something other than another branch of the plant such as the touch of a finger causes the plant to retreat and close up as a form of defense. Hence the name Sensitive plant. I try not to do this as I think it must be tormenting for them but I have touched it a few times and it’s fascinating to see how receptive the plant is - it will be a challenge re-potting the plant!

I am excited to see what potential this plant can provide - whether that be a metaphor or become a physical aspect of the work - cyanotypes or straightforward documentary photos of its growth. the plant provides a way to think about my relationship with nature, mental health, and environmentalism.

If I can go on and sustain this plant then perhaps this can become a way to connect with others - as this plant can be rooted again so I can share its abundance with others. So excited to see where I am heading with this research, it feels overwhelming at times but having the potential to explore new ways of working in my practice is really inspiring me.

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Sensitive Plant seeds soaking in water for 24 hours before planting

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I rooted the plant on several different pots, the pack included 300 seeds, most of them have not grown but I am pleased with what is growing so far.

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I will re-pot them once they have grown out of their existing pot. The plants are being grown in Peet free soil. I also collect water from left over glasses of water so that I am not wasting water and trying to be sustainable.

Back to basics

I’ve been talking about making work and the process of other people being engaged with their work - whether that be a garden or portraiture. I’ve been exploring ideas from my archives and I’ve also been thinking about alternative ways of working and the possibilities of working with historical photography practices. I have previously worked with Cyanotypes and working in the way always feels like I am going back to basics.

I start by making the chemicals to make the cyanotype which will cover the paper which will need to be stored in the dark before I can use it. As it’s summer this is the best and also the worst time to do it. It takes ages to get dark, well dark enough for me to go to work coating the paper in the photographic mixes - I do this on the floor and on the back of a hard surface as it’s quite a messy process.

Once I have completed this process I make a move to quickly move the paper - in the dark to a cupboard where it will take a day or two for the paper to dry. After those few days, I wait again for it to go dark before I bring it back out and store it in a black lightproof bag.

And then I wait for the sun…. which comes eventually …

In the meantime, I have printed some images onto clear transfer paper which has a plastically feel but would work as a negative to use for the Cyanotypes, but the paper I have prepared is smaller than the prints and the images on the transfer paper are not dark enough. So I spend a good 2-3 hours painting over the lines of the photo with Japanese black ink to create a new image a new negative so the work has evolved even further from its initial point. I now have two sets of negatives but in different evolutionary stages, it seems that I have moved into new terrain for me and I am happy to be finding further potential in analogue photography.

This week we had a bright morning, I woke up blurry-eyed and sensed that I must take the opportunity, luckily I had enough sun for an hour before I started work to get the Cyanotypes done. One hour. Not long but long enough to see if my strategy to re-paint the lines had worked and they did, next time I will need more sun and more time but I am happy it worked. Just need to prepare some paper for next time. I’ve also enjoyed working with my hands and the slowness of it all, I will look to see what comes next and I will certainly be exploring cyanotype photography.

I would also recommend the current exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery - Unearthed: Photography’s Roots which provided me with a further impetus to engage with historical photographic methods. I welcomed the opportunity to be back in a gallery again. I particularly enjoyed Anna Atkins and her luminous Cyanotypes from over 100 years ago that document the sea and plant life of Victorian Britain. Next to Atkins, Cecilia Glaisher Albumen print’s fern prints provided a lovely contrast - striking and detailed I felt that both Atkins and Glaisher had made me think about locality and what I could source for my own work. The Photogravures of Karl Blossfeldt’s precise and beautifully executed, timeless quality made me reflect on the permanence of photography.

The resistance of basic is of historical photography.

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Here are the negatives which I used to make Cyanotypes, I ended up cutting them again, using the lines created from the college to retain a reference to the original form. A collaboration between modern and historical photo methods

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And here are the results, the transfer were not left on for long as the light started to hide behind a cloud, I also think maybe the cyanotype mixture was a bit weak as I didn't use much initially and I was trying to be frugal. More to learn for next time, that’s if the sun returns.

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Reflecting on belonging and the gardens of Jamaica Kincaid

I’ve been reading about Jamaica Kincaid’s gardens in Vermont. Her book is curated with illustrations and refined sentences about her appreciation and relationship with gardening and the American landscape of Vermont; a northeastern state that borders the Canadian Provence of Quebec and has a distinct Englishness that feels familiar.

Vermont is part of the New England region and is the second least populated state in the US. Before Europeans colonised the US, there was a healthy indigenous population that inhabited the area for 12,000 years. My knowledge of Vermont before reading Kincaid extended to knowing about their Senator - Bernie Sanders, cold weather, and about how white the population is.

So it was a surprise to read about Kincaid; an Antiguan-American writer, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer living amongst the landscape that contrasted from her own upbringing in the Caribbean. I found myself easily absorbed by Kincaid’s writing, it felt like I was having a conversation with her and she has created vivid illustrations of the mountains of Vermont, the extreme weather, and the gardens that she has nurtured whilst living with her (then) husband and two young children.

Jamaica Kincaid is a Black woman who is mostly living in a white space surrounded by the history of England’s colonialism so this element must have felt familiar to her as she grew up in Angugia which only gained its independence in 1981 (the year I was born). However, the island and her memories do appear in the book infrequently and come in and out so it’s not really the focus of the book - the garden and her present existence in Vermont are at the forefront. However, the drastic difference between Antigua and Vermont does provide a point of reflection for me.

Kincaid is obviously passionate about gardening and is dedicated and appreciative of the cycle of nature and the abundance that her garden provides for her. The solace and a purpose for her, but also practical elements are not skimmed over such as the money spent buying new trees and flowers and the battles she faces when her attempts to furnish new life into her gardens don’t go to plan. At one point someone mentions cutting down some trees - this horrifies her and after the incident, she goes around her garden and apologises to the trees individually. You see she cares deeply and this act doesn’t seem absurd in the slightest.

I am only halfway through reading My Garden (Book) so there is still much to process in her writing and also regarding her relationship to nature. Currently, she is living in a house that was owned by the photographer which feels quite fitting! So I have been writing quite a few notes recently and I am working to start interviewing artists/writers/photographers/environmentalists about how nature is integrated into their life and practice.

Kincaid has also prompted me to think about what avenues I want to go down with my own practice. Will be something journalistic, personal, and reflective of the conflicting relationship with a place that has been enriched by the legacy of slavery and colonialism or will I choose to be more direct and address this history and by acknowledging it I can then reframe the narrative that reaffirms my belonging in UK.

I always find non-fiction writing more inspiring sometimes than academic writing, the narrative and the personal are easier to latch onto and I take strength from seeing someone similar to me thinking and processing similar ideas to myself. Makes me feel less alone.

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Collages of trees in Brockwell Park - June 2021

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Collages of trees in Brockwell Park - June 2021

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Collages of trees in Brockwell Park - June 2021

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Collages of trees in Brockwell Park - June 2021

I have been thinking about using myself in my work again. I've forgotten how to take photos of myself

I used to make work about my experience and process, regarding my mental health and nature. Over the past year or so I have shifted focus and this had led me to take fewer portraits of myself. To the point that I now feel anxious and awkward being in front of the camera.

In an attempt to shift this awkwardness I made some self-portraits while rising my partner’s family in Mazury/Poland in September 2020. During this visit, I found myself walking with my partner through the forest of Muzury and it was a lovely experience, with no distractions.

No phone reception, which meant that we had no internet, and we rarely came across anyone. We were alone and this nourishing and the stillness was something that I was not familiar with.

One day we went mushroom picking and I found myself wanting to take some self-portraits, playing with the mushrooms - on this occasion, I didn’t feel self-conscious and I enjoyed having something to focus on (mushroom) rather than the performance of being in front of the camera. I gave myself a task, to balance the mushroom on my face to find myself engaging with an element that came from the earth.

As part of my research I feel I need to involve myself in the process more and putting myself in front of the camera would be beneficial in working out what methodologies would work the best, the idea is to work with people of colour but I feel I need to be more specific and nuanced in my approach.

I’m also not dismissing the idea that I could make a series about myself again, touching on my relationship with nature and perhaps less of a focus on trauma/mental health which has been part of my previous work.

More wellbeing perhaps?

My next step is to make a list of artists/writers/organisations that I could interview which will help and also to do more research on photographers, women, and particularly with a focus on performance within nature or incorporating nature.

A good starting point is An Mendieta’s 1970’s series Silueta and her practice of ‘Earth Art’.

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I've been looking through my archive

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

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Images are were made from 2016 to 2018 and featured locations in London/UK and New York City/USA. ©Marie Smith

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Shifting focus

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.

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An introduction to my research into environmentalism

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.

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