Welcome to WOOD.LAND.

Portraits and soundscapes from the urban woods pre-imagine a warm, woodland welcome not always extended to those from ethnically diverse backgrounds.

Drawing on forest ritual and oral traditions, Welcome to WOOD.LAND. extends relational practice to sensory activism.

Wood walks and ‘fittings’ in hand-sculpted armour provide sanctuary to unlock expression and imagine new futures.

Conversations in nature build our capacity to challenge and re-negotiate ‘urban’ narratives which do not include green space.

Enveloped by trees and life, we fight a battle of ‘counter-memory,’ seeking to unravel the notion that black and brown bodies are unnatural in the natural world.

Photographic installation 200x80cm , canvas and scored, stained ply

Wood walkers in a series of protective fantasy capes, collars and shields. In the woods, we bear witness to our collective experience of disenfranchisement in nature. Walking together, we welcome ourselves, and inhabit the urban woods on new terms.

Moulded organza masks

Portraits highlight the urgent links between bio-diversity and cultural diversity.

Subject in armour in fitings before and during wood-walks

Conversations in nature build our capacity to challenge and re-negotiate ‘urban’ narratives which do not include green space.

Fired leather collar

Wearable objects moulded in leather, silk and quilting act as methodology and installation.

Fired leather cape and collar, lined in vintage brocade

Fittings in wearable objects designated as ‘armour’, locate conversations in a liminal space between city streets and the woods.

Fired leather shoulder cape

Welcome to WOOD. LAND. aims to gain access to deeper research on the emotional and social connections between ethnicity and nature.

Fired leather and suede shield

As a methodology the project has the potential to re-claim, re-contextualise and re-write the narratives of ethnically diverse citizens in urban spaces.