Unseen: in search of the sublime and spirit of place
Unseen Photography Exhibition
I have a public exhibition coming up in the Foyer Gallery at The Jubilee Library Brighton from 14th - 28th April, 2024
Come along to the private view, it’s free but numbers are limited so booking is essential.
Unseen 6 Cissbury Ring
Unseen 6 is out now! All about a Samhain wander up on Cissbury Hill and a highlight of Sussex’s ‘Legend Landscape’ - Cissbury Ring. A relic of our ancient past, Cissbury Ring has been in use for over five thousand years. Find out more in the latest chapter of Unseen Zine - a periodically produced photo zine about walking, atmosphere and a search for the sublime and spirit of place.
Photography exhibition - The Mint House, Pevensey
Saturday October 7th, I am showing some prints from my Unseen project as part of the Mint House New Heritage Takeover. Based in the gorgeously crumbly back room/conservatory/orangery of this centuries old inn, I am exhibiting photographs from some of my wanderings around ancient sites in Sussex and copies of my zines available to buy. There will also be: flash tattooing, makers market and an evening event including conversation, films and music hosted by The Stone Club founders, Lally Macbeth and Matthew Shaw. I will be there during the day the evening to chat about my work and the beautiful Sussex landscape in general.
Unseen is about connecting with the natural and emotional landscape through the past, and exploring the spiritual, archaeological and topographical significance of specific ancient sites in Sussex. Through a series of intuitive walks on the key celebratory dates of nature’s calendar, I am spending the year unearthing the hidden mysteries of the land and searching for the sublime, spirit of each place and ultimately, home.
Unseen 5 - Clapham Wood
Unseen 5 is out now! The latest edition of Unseen Zine takes you on a wander through the notorious Clapham Wood. Rumoured to be the most haunted woodland in Sussex and a locus for UFO sightings, occult activity, paranormal happenings and unexplained disappearances. It’s been a place of weird goings on since the 1960s. Unseen 5 isn’t just a wander through this eerie wood, but a wander through my thoughts, memories and some historical markers, as I retrace my steps from the medieval St. Mary the Virgin Church, through Clapham Wood to the clearing and back again.
I have written a philosophy book for children with Dorling Kindersley. Publishing date - 5th October 2023
About Get To Know: Philosophy
A fun, visual guide for kids about the tricky topic of philosophy: what it covers, why it's important, and who the big philosophers are!
The instinct to question is shared by both children and philosophers, and kids start to question the world around them at an early age. Children aged 7+ can begin to understand how critical thinking works, from the smallest details to the largest concepts, both children and philosophers approach the world with an enquiring mind, and accept little at face value.
Get to know: Philosophy will encourage and magnify children's inquisitive side, using engaging thought experiments, real-world examples and allegories. Learning about philosophy doesn't have to be tricky either - this guide features fun activities and quizzes, bright pages and breaks the information into bite-size chunks so that it's easy to digest.
Workshop with Rachel Poulton
Friday 4th August
11:35 - 14:30 - Hastings & St. Leonards Sailing Club, Marina, St-Leonards-On-sea Tn38 0BU
I will be facilitating a workshop exploring spirit of place, eternal landscapes, intuitive walking and how they can influence photographic practice. I will introduce the concept of psychogeography and briefly explain how the idea inspires my work before setting off on a psychogeographical wander ourselves. I will lead the group on an intuitive walk from the Hastings and St. Leonards Sailing Club to Bulverhythe Cliffs, recording the experience as we go. Images created will reflect the mood, ambience and relationship between the photographer and the environment. Participants will choose a sequence of images that represent their observations, these photographs will be part of a seafront exhibition later in the year.
As you walk, “be alert to the happenstance of metaphors, watch for visual rhymes, coincidences, analogies, family resemblances, the changing moods … Walking makes for content; footage for footage” (Robert Macfarlane)
Saturday 5th August
17:30 - Hastings & St. Leonards Sailing Club, Marina, St-Leonards-On-sea Tn38 0BU
Talk about Unseen - Exploring the Hidden Landscape
Brighton Photography Club
Throughout June and July I worked with a brilliant group of young people investigating ‘spirit of place’ and photographing what Brighton means to them.
After school, and the odd Saturday, workshops consisted of teaching photography skills, searching through the Museum’s archives, documenting walks down on Brighton Seafront and creating work and words for each participants’ Bronze Arts Award.
An exhibition of their work is on show in the Brighton Museum and Art Gallery throughout August and September.
Birdwatching Workshops with artist Daniel and Clara
I ran two Birdwatching workshops in Mersea, Essex to support artists Daniel and Clara’s Birding project, a visual arts based project centred around birds and birdwatching. The workshops took place at the Fingringhoe Wick Nature Reserve, and Cudmore Grove on Mersea Island.
The symbolism, mythology and folklore of birds
Birds have fascinated humans in diverse cultures throughout the world for thousands of years. Our workshop will be an introduction to the symbolism and folklore attached to common birds found in the UK and around the world. Rachel will tell the children tales told throughout history about sparrows, herons, nightingales and woodpeckers. We will then go bird watching and make a record of the birds we see, taking note of the plumage, size, call/song and behaviour of each bird. Bird books will be available to deduce bird species and names. The children will then have a chance to choose one of the birds they observe, create their own poster with artwork and details of their own imagined mythology attached to their bird. By the end of the session we will have our own guide to the folklore of Essex birds.
Unseen
I am really excited to announce that I have been awarded an Arts Council England Project grant to develop my Unseen project. With the help of funding from the arts I am planning lots of new work, exhibitions, workshops, walks and talks over the coming year. This is a great opportunity and I’m incredibly grateful to ACE for supporting this project.
Photography Club with Photoworks
I will be working with Photoworks throughout June and July facilitating a Photography Club in partnership with Brighton Museum and Art Gallery. The club will investigate ‘spirit of place’ and feature themes of landscape, place and time. We will be delving into the museum’s vast photography archive and exploring the topography of Brighton & Hove past and present.
Workshops will feature practical activities and collaborative exercises and are designed to be playful and fun, with a focus on creativity and skills development.
There will be a showcase of participants’ photographs in the Museum throughout August and a private view in September.
Memento Mori - Exhibition at Jubilee Library, Brighton
7th - 14th May 2023
Presentation in the Community Area at 12pm, Sunday 14th May
As part of the Dying Matters Awareness Week programme at Jubilee Library in Brighton, I will be exhibiting some prints from my series Memento Mori and delivering a talk about the art form of Memento Mori. I’ll present a brief introduction, explore the origins of the Latin phrase, its meaning and take a deepish dive into a few of the famous renaissance paintings that can be viewed at The National Gallery in London.
Memento Mori is a series of black and white photographs taken during the lockdown of 2020 in the overgrown graveyards of medieval churches in Sussex. The work was printed and bound in a limited edition A5 zine. Rather than a morbid meditation on death Memento Mori is about cherishing life; it urges us to live courageously, passionately and with purpose - whatever that means for you. In the words of Seneca, the Stoic philosopher;
“ … we are not given a short life but we make it short, and we are not ill-supplied but wasteful of it. Life is long if you know how to use it.”
Seneca - On the Shortness of Life
