2025

 

ARCHIVE 2005-2024

FESTIVAL

MOUNTAIN FESTIVAL
Annual live event. 2016 – 2024
Haute-Savoie, France

Mountain Festival was a project developed by the artist as a counter-cultural annual event taking place in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in the French Alps. For most of the year, the mountain is a backdrop to human activity, littered with the infrastructures and mechanisms of tourism. This work considered the mountain’s activity – a two-day observance of vast geological time set against humanity’s brief entity. The field of work for Mountain Festival was to attend to the mountain environment itself.

Souvenir posters 2016-2024

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PERFORMANCE LECTURES

MATERIAL FIELDS
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script). 2024
Keynote lecture (1 hour)

Material Fields: surveys, mappings and counter-cartographies was performed as part of the week-long Walking Art and Relational Geographies international conference exploring ‘transhumance, nomadisms and migrations’. This live performance uses a format of projected imagery and narrated script to invite an audience on a poetic journey across the natural, managed and urban territories of Europe and beyond. Through detailed surveys of the structures, systems and living patterns of sensory environments, this work moves over the fabric of the Earth to reveal encounters with its surface.

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THE GLACIER AND THE ROCK
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script, occasionally with books and natural objects). 2018

The Glacier and the Rock is part of a larger body of work Guide74 – a decade-long study of the Haute-Savoie. This live performance uses a format of projected imagery, spoken word and literary readings to take an audience on a poetic journey to the high features of Alpine France. Through a detailed survey into the structures and systems of Alpine glaciers in the Mont-Blanc massif, this work is an investigation into accelerated change, collapsing environments and the transportation of material.

Performed:
2023 – Chamonix Experience, Haute Savoie, France (as part of Arc’Teryx Chamonix community)
2023 – Cabane du Grand Mountet (2886m), Val d’Anniviers, Switzerland (as part of ALTER- 2023)
2019 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (as part of Explore 2019)
2018 – GroundWork Gallery, King’s Lynn, Norfolk, UK (as part of a study day event)

Comment:
“Your performance… has stayed with me, a very gentle, heartfelt, natural ‘river’ sensation. I loved the way you almost gave the space to the river. It was a gorgeous piece of work. Thank you for sharing it.” (RGS-IBG)
“Your performance was the highlight of the [RGS Explore 2019] weekend and I felt quite strong resonances with what I am endeavouring to do with my own work.” (RGS-IBG)
“That was such a wonderful performance … very moving – steady, strong, absolutely stunning to watch, very poetic… We were all mesmerised.” (GroundWork Gallery)

Excerpt from narrated script:
Flows over bedrock | Deflated of ice mass | Heavy with debris | Heated – by long summers
Loose rock – weathered | And falling | Geology in its undoing | And future making
A small orange marker | Shows passage | Across the moraine | A place of two states – of mobile – and solid – matter

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CONFLUENCES
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script). 2018

Confluences is a large body of work made through a series of extensive studies in a natural park spanning France and Belgium. This live performance uses a format of projected imagery, spoken word and literary readings to take an audience on a poetic journey to the fluid features of a post-industrial region in northern Europe. Through a detailed survey into the structures and systems of industrial and leisure canal networks, open and closed river systems, SSSI locations and ephemeral water this work is an investigation into accelerated change, collapsing environments and the transportation of material.

Performed:
2018 – Wheal Martyn Museum, St Austell, Cornwall, UK (as part of ‘Landscapes in Limbo: Creativity and Stewardship’, Heritage Futures Transformation Theme Knowledge-Exchange, Cultural Geography, University of Exeter)

Comment:
“Absolutely not what I expected, your performance was given with so much care.” (Wheal Martyn Museum)
“Such gorgeous imagery in your writing and photographs… please tell me you will publish it as a book!” (Wheal Martyn Museum)

Footnotes:
In May 2018, the Transformation Theme of the Heritage Futures project hosted a knowledge-exchange workshop in Cornwall. The event brought together a diverse group of people to talk about artists’ research and work alongside landscape management and development activity in changing landscapes.

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ESTUDIO DE CAMPO
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script, occasionally with books and natural objects). 2018

Estudio de Campo is a large body of work made through a series of extensive studies in different regions of Spain over a seven-year period. This live performance uses a format of projected imagery, spoken word and literary readings to take an audience on a poetic journey to the natural and artificial features of mainland Spain. Through a detailed survey into the structures and systems of the barranco, carcavas and agricultural land this work is an investigation into accelerated change, collapsing environments and the transportation of material.

Performed:
2019 – AADK (Centro Negra), Blanca, Spain
2019 – Hangar, Barcelona, Spain
2018 – Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades, Barcelona, Spain (to open exhibition ‘Esparto: new ground’)

Comment:
“I really enjoyed your performance, your writing was very moving; you have a great ability to say exactly what you need to without saying too much.” (AADK)
“Your work crosses boundaries of poetry and art so effortlessly that I closed my eyes against your photographs to see your writing more clearly.” (Hangar)
“Wow, your voice is so calm and sure. It was so deep into the landscape, I cried.” (Museu Molí Paperer de Capellades)

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THE LAKE AND THE ISLAND
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script, occasionally with books and natural objects). 2017

The Lake and the Island is part of a body of work made on Rabbit Island in Lake Superior, during a solitary month-long environmental arts residency in 2016. This live performance uses a format of projected imagery, spoken word and literary readings to take an audience on a poetic journey to the interior facets and littoral features of a remote island in America. Through a series of embodied fieldworks and immersive surveys of the forested rocky outcrop, this work explores microcosms, remoteness and the scales of wilderness.

Performed:
2018 – Saffron Screen (live cinema), Saffron Walden, Essex, UK

Comment:
“A surprisingly accomplished piece of work to witness on a Sunday afternoon in Saffron Walden!” (Saffron Screen)
“Mesmerising! I feel as though I was transported with you to that island.” (Saffron Screen)
“Your voice is beautiful.” (Saffron Screen)

Excerpt from narrated script:
Higher up – rough boulders piled | And littered | Make shadows | Deep around the island – broken
Across great slabs – softened | By lapping water | Where small plants cling – alone | And grouped together
Drying | In the summer air | Skeletons of spring

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A MOUNTAIN RECORDING ACTIVITY
Collaborative Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic scripts). 2017

Performed:
2018 – British Library and King’s Cross, London, UK (with Laura Harrington, as part of ‘Lunch at the Summit: on high ground’, Choules+Harrington of TSOEG.org, at the Invisible Dust ‘Under Her Eye: Women and Climate Change’ international summit)

Comment:
“Seemless. I have to tell you I savoured every minute. The collaboration worked so well between your landscapes.” (Invisible Dust)
“We are really pleased we switched presentations at the last minute to see you and Laura!” (Invisible Dust)

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WILDERNESS GUIDE: RABBIT ISLAND
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script, occasionally with books and natural objects). 2017

Performed:
2018 – Baltic 39 (WOON Studios), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (as part of ‘Assembly: Performative Symposium’)
2017 – DeVos Art Museum, Michigan, USA (as part of Rabbit Island residency 2016)

Comment:
“How do I get to go to this island?” (Baltic 39)
“Stunning to witness.” (Baltic 39)
“As a geographer, it’s fascinating to witness your intimate connection with the details of the earth.” (DeVos Art Museum)
“A landscape we thought we knew well, but through your eyes it still reveals. Truly wonderful.” (DeVos Art Museum)
“I feel like I was on Rabbit Island with you!” (DeVos Art Museum)

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A JOURNEY THROUGH FIELDWORK
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script). 2016

Performed:
2018 – Baltic 39 (WOON Studios), Newcastle upon Tyne, UK (as part of ‘Assembly: Performative Exhibition’)
2018 – Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF), Plaça de la Mercè, Barcelona, Spain

Comment:
“I’m so so sorry for falling asleep during your performance! The combination of a warm room and your lulling voice was irresistible.” (Baltic 39)
“Your fieldwork imagery in photographs and poetry opens so many possibilities in cultural geography.” (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)
“I never knew fieldwork could be like this! I want to develop it in my own work.” (Universitat Pompeu Fabra)

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FIELDWORKING
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script, occasionally with books and natural objects). 2015

Performed:
2017 – Royal Holloway University of London, Bedford Square, London, UK (as part of RHUL Centre for the GeoHumanities events programme 2017-2018)
2016 – Parasol unit foundation for contemporary art, London, UK
2016 – University of Lincoln, UK
2015 – Joya: arte + ecología, Cortijada Los Gázquez, Almería, Spain, with Aberystwyth University (Fine Art)
2015 – The Burton Art Gallery, Devon, UK
2015 – Peter Richards Room at Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge, UK (Cambridge University Expeditions Society)
2015 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (as part of Explore 2015)

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OTHER LECTURES

ANXIETY IN EXTRACTIVE PRAXIS
Pre-recorded / Live Event (photographic imagery and poetic script). 2016

This lecture uses texts and images to question the problematic depletion of mineral resources.

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DURATIONAL PERFORMANCES

INSTRUMENTAL
Performance / Live Event (small percussion instruments). 2019

Instrumental is a durational performance piece made over several hours, days or weeks. Exploring sound, resonance and turbulence, small percussion instruments are used to animate the air – through these sonic actions the artist calls attention to the presence of this element. Thinking through the structures and systems of air quality and behaviour, this work is a direct action about accelerated change, collapsing environments and the transformation of material.

Images show 1-hour performance (triangle), Ulea, Murcia, Spain 2019

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LAC BLANC 2352M
Performance (glacial lake). 2011

Lac Blanc 2352m is a performance piece made over 42 minutes in a glacial lake in the Haute-Savoie, France. Swimming towards the centre of the lake, the artist makes a series of images en route. This action explores bouyancy, lightness and material relationship. The performance physically plays out the act of moving through different material fields to embody the notion of displacement.

Additional data: the performance took place on 16th August

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TALKS

Readings:
2020 – ONCA gallery, UK (presented Itinerant Actions as part of the POLLEN20 ‘Weaving Connections’ webinar)
2019 – MIMA, UK (presented Material Field: North Pennines remotely as part of Laura Harrington’s ‘Artist Camp’ discussion panel)
2016 – Rabbit Island, Lake Superior, Michigan, USA (presented Wilderness Guide as part of the Rabbit Island remote residency)
2014 – Joya: arte + ecología, Los Gázquez, Spain (presented Terreno: a survey (part 1), as part of ‘Encuentro Internacional #1’)
2012 – Anatomy Theatre, King’s College, London, UK (presented In Search of Flora virtual walking tour, as part of ‘Strandlines / Artist Cabinet collective’)
2012 – Museum of London, UK (presented Experimental Fieldwork, as part of Neal White’s ‘Experimental Ruins’, with Arts Catalyst, London)
2010 – Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, UK (presented Flow with Nicola Hewish, as part of ‘The Culture of Rowing and Swimming’ symposium with Oxford Brookes Cultural Olympiad and the Creative Campus Initiative)

Panel discussions:
2019 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (organiser of Artists in the Field for ‘Explore: expeditions and fieldwork planning’ since 2007)

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PERFORMANCE PAPERS

A MOUNTAIN RECORDING ACTIVITY
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and poetic script). 2017

Performed:
2018 – University of Leeds, UK (as part of ‘Performing Mountains: an International Symposium on Mountain Culture’)
2017 – University of Leeds and Sheffield University, UK (as part of ASLE UKI and LAND2 Cross-Disciplinary Conference and Exhibition on Writing, Art and Environment)
2016 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (as part of the University of Brighton session ‘Sensory orientations: transversal practices and dissemination within art and geography’, AC2016 conference)

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FIELDWORK IN PRACTICE – performance, survey, document / shared geographies
Performance / Live Event (projected photographic imagery and essay script). 2016

Performed:
2016 – College of Arts, University of Lincoln, UK (as part of the Performing Arts symposium ‘The Alternative Document’)
2014 – Plymouth University, UK (as part of the conference ‘Of the Earth’, co-hosted by Land/Water and the Visual Arts, Plymouth University and WALK at Sunderland University in conjunction with the exhibition Walk On)
2014 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (as part of the Royal Holloway University of London session ‘Geoaesthetics: Art, Environment and Co-production’, AC2014 conference)
2013 – Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Barcelona, Spain (as part of the ‘1 simposio Internacional Topografías de lo Invisible: estrategias crítica entre arte y geographía’)

Images shows Fieldwork in Practice performance paper in the publication Topografías de lo Invisible
Published by Facultad de Bellas Artes, Universidad de Barcelona

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PERFORMANCE POSTERS

A MOUNTAIN RECORDING ACTIVITY
Printed Folded Map (1270mm x 952mm). 2015

A Mountain Recording Activity: Future Remains | A Mountain Recording Activity: Present Reserve

Presented:
2016 – Royal Geographical Society (with IBG), London, UK (as part of the ‘Nexus Thinking’ research poster exhibition, RGS-IBG AC2016)
2016 – London Art Fair, UK (as part of the ‘Field Mapping’ event with Parasol unit of contemporary art, London)
2016 – Aberystwyth University, Wales (as part of ‘STRATA: Art and Science Collaborations in the Antropocene’)

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PUBLISHED ACADEMIC PAPER

Fieldwork in Practice: shared geographies (with case studies: Neal White, Emma Smith) – El simposio Topografías de lo Invisible, Barcelona, Spain 2013 [published 2015 Universidad de Barcelona]