Saturday 20 May 2017

Continuum - Autumn - Battery




In autumn trees store up energy in the roots and stems in order to survive the winter wit this thought in mind Miles and Dacombe decided that a battery / bird-box which emitted a vibrating hum 


and sugar glass acorns suspended from the branches of a beautiful willow tree would make an eloquent end to their walk through the seasons.



 Participants gathered round the tree, sat beneath the branches and listened to my poem

We Follow The Seasons


We follow the seasons,
bare, then budding,
greening up, fruiting.
Gold leaves turn brown
as we devour ourselves,
sucking ourselves dry.

We see in red, follow the light,
seek out the sun,
drinking it in.
Breathing out oxygen,
we are your vital organ.
Lungs of the world.

Our roots talk and twitch,
threads dividing to a
thousand tiny tendrils.
Microscopic fungus
delving through rock
extracting nutrients.

We play the long game,
here before you, still here
centuries after your passing.
A timeline of tales in peat, in soil
in the rings of our seasons which swell
then diminish as climates change.

Our presence soothes you,
our shaded spaces cool you,
mind and body, heart and soul.
Our songs, our sighing
carried on the wind with a
creak-crack of bark and twig.

We are male and female.
Pollen, flower, root and branch.
We are patient, opportunistic
clever seed stored up,
lying dormant waiting
to become viable.

Carole Miles 2017








The photographs from this part of the walk can be found here

Continuum was commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees as part of the Our Woods Festival

deeprootstalltrees.org/          
http://deeprootstalltrees.org/about-us/who-we-are/





Friday 19 May 2017

Continuum - Summer

During our research period Jo Dacombe and I took plenty of images of the leaf canopies in Thoroughsale Woods plus a few other woods during the summer months of 2016.


Our original intention was to hold the walk in March 2017 when the surrounding trees would still be bare to give a contrast between what was and what would be but rain made this impossible and the walk was rescheduled for May. However this change of plan worked in our favour and created shifting perspectives and experiences.


Three fabric canopies were printed giving different viewpoints through the photographic leaves. These were tied high above ground level, ground cover and mats were laid beneath them and participants were invited to lay down, look up and view both the artworks and the actual trees through specially made kaleidoscopes










The photographs from this part of the walk can be found here

Continuum was commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees as part of the Our Woods Festival

deeprootstalltrees.org/

Wednesday 17 May 2017

Continuum - Spring



In Spring the woods are carpeted with 
Bluebells, Miles and Dacombe wanted to recreate the many and various shades of blue in a more open space. Participants were asked to choose a sheet of blue acrylic and a pair of blue tinted glassed to wear so the could become fully immersed in the filed of blues. They were then encouraged to form small groups, working together to form drifts or sculptural clusters to represent the Bluebells.










The photographs from this part of the walk can be found here

Continuum was commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees as part of the Our Woods Festival

deeprootstalltrees.org/

Tuesday 16 May 2017

Continuum - Winter



For the Winter Intervention, Miles and Dacombe wrapped a Hazel tree in silver foil. The tree to be found inside the cool green of the woods and simmered as the light changes or the leaves moved. The space was quite confined and the group had to line up in single file to receive a piece of Turkish Delight (a nod tothe eternal winter and the Snow Queen in C.S.Lewis's Narnia). As they ate, participants were asked to think of a word, the first that sprang to mind. They were each given a piece of orange ribbon to tie on a tree or branch before leaving the wooded enclosure.









The photographs from this part of the walk can be found here

Continuum was commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees as part of the Our Woods Festival

deeprootstalltrees.org/

Monday 15 May 2017

Continuum - Portal

Thursday 4 May 2017

Dreaming Our Woods - Rehearsals


Very busy week with final rehearsals for Dreaming Our Woods


Neil Paris in the centre


Barb Jungr


Gareth Fuller


George Reilly and Barb Junger


Neil Paris striding in Kurt's lightsacpe


Dancers