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 it is something that I had been wishing to investigate in my practice. I have spent this time researching and engaging with this topic.
My aim was to use the time and funds to reflect on how I can facilitate a workshop for communities of colour to process their thoughts about climate change and the implications this has on their lives. I have been using my experiences by exploring London’s various woodlands and parks as a place as a case study to understand the themes that I wanted to explore as part of my grant.
This felt appropriate before I engage in activities/workshops with other people. I wanted to know exactly what I wanted to do and what the implications would be on my practice. My blog reflects my thoughts and different approaches I have been engaging with over the course of the 8-9 months since I was awarded my grant.
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 Siluetaand her practice of ‘Earth Art’.
