Walking

By: on1st April 2020

My artist practice stems from walking and experiencing places. I bring this practice into many different community events and learning projects and find that people enjoy the opportunity to take time observing the world through artistic eyes.

I have led walks in which people have used found/gathered materials, photography, mapping, drawing, and tracings to draw inspiration from surroundings and create a range of artworks in:

  • collage and assemblages;
  • drawing and painting;
  • printmaking;
  • artist books and zines;
  • printing using plant dyes and other gathered materials;
  • outdoor sculpture;
  • papermaking.

Some project examples:

Scour 2 – The Museum in the Landscape

I led two walks and mapping workshops with groups in the River Arrow Valley as part of an ACE funded project led by artists Elizabeth Turner and Keith Ashford. We then published a collaborative zine using some of the artworks and photographs made during the project.

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Cinderloo 1821

I have led or organised a number of walks and creative activities with schools and community groups exploring local industrial history in this heritage project

Act of Resistance

This event took place at the 2019 Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography in partnership with Vicky Holliday, Senior Producer at Creative Scene, host for the programme in Dewsbury.  The event tied into the theme of Creative Scene’s Blink! project, part of the Paper Peace training and heritage programme.

Commencing with a brief introduction to the history of people’s protests in this part of West Yorkshire, we then walked to sites with historic connections to the Chartists. I suggested that psychogeography should not be a passive means of observing and experiencing the environment whilst walking, but should be an active mode of critique, challenge and playful subversion.  It can be a tool for changing the perspective of participants and the people they interact with.

Participants made small interventions in the urban landscape to foster community kindness, before gathering for a short performance walk as a demonstration of unity.