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/

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/

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/

Continuum - Portal

Continuum was envisaged as a time-travelling walk with artists Miles & Dacombe to discover frozen moments in time. The artists wanted to enable participants to see the woods in a new way through artworks installed in Thoroughsale Woods in a magical and sensory exploration in this part of the ancient woodland of Rockingham Forest. A walking experience that played with concepts of time and seasonal change within a woodland setting where walkers were invited to further create the auras of different times of the year with the use of a range of materials.

PORTAL

The first intervention which invited walkers to step out of the everyday and into the changing seasons to be found in the woods.

The walkers gathered at the Boating Lake Cabin and the walk began at the entrance to the woods. 

Jo Dacombe performed her specially created invocation 

Continuum: an invocation

Welcome to Continuum.

Welcome to the woods,

A place of mystery and constant change

Long have woodlands been the source of

Folk tales and enchantment.

Trees contain spirit and energy

The perfect analogies of the cycle of life, death and rebirth

With their seasonal change

And deep time endurance.

Their canopies stretching to light and life;

Their roots reaching into the underworld

Of death and darkness.

Trees have mysterious properties

A Tree-lore

That our ancients understood.

Divination, protection and healing;

A deeper, long time wisdom.

The Alder, the Goddess Tree, with its nurturing and protective powers,

Giving nutrients to the earth;

The Ash, the World Tree, holding the earth and sky together;

The Beech tree, its wood used for inscribing runes by the Nordic peoples,

Carrying wisdom in the form of letters

The Beech gives us the word for Book.

The Beech, the Celts associated with ancient knowledge and time.

We cast the mast

From the Beech tree

To open a portal to knowledge and time;

Where time slips

Exploring the four seasons in one day

And the knowledge of sight and sounds,

Taste and touch;

The magic of the trees.

We invite you to step over the mast

And enter our woodland time

Continuum.

Jo Dacombe

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

During this part of the invocation Carole Miles created a portal by casting beech masts for the participants to walk over.

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

deeprootstalltrees.org/

Miles and Dacombe have been collaborating since 2010. Their work aims to creatively engage people with environments, often enhancing the senses and leading walks into undiscovered places, connecting people with their surroundings in surprising ways. They work nationally, running walking projects and creating interventions in landscapes. They have worked on trains, in fields, climbed trees and explored crossings between the urban and the rural, even in the rain.

Continuum - Whats Cooking?

I'd love to tell you but am sworn to secrecy, but whatever it is I'm making / baking, they will be part of the Miles and Dacombe Continuum Walk for the Our Woods Festival. Don't forget to book your tickets!

My excellent helpers, Sue and Stacie sorting sweeties

and letting me run amok with the Green Patch oven!

Continuum - a New Commission for Miles and Dacombe

Deep Roots Tall Trees -  Dreaming Our Woods

Jo Dacombe and I were delighted to be commissioned by Deep Roots Tall Trees to create a walk with interventions for the Our Woods Festival. We have a period of research to walk and create together in Thoroughsale Woods. We will be exploring the seasons and our walk will be called Continuum. Very exciting, I hope you can join us!

Photos by Kate Dyer

See the complete program of exciting events here