26/08/2021
Join artist Feral Practice on Saturday September 4th to explore human-plant connection among some of Letchworth’s parks and wilder spaces. Be My Mother, I Said to the Trees is part of the Broadway Gallery’s autumn programme of exhibitions and events investigating the intersection between nature and culture. As part of this diverse exploration Feral Practice will lead two of their spoken word participatory performances - Phytocentric and Mycorrhizal Meditation.
We invite you to bring a personal story or favourite poem/text about your connection to trees and plants. And a picnic lunch, that you might choose to enhance with edible plants as part of our foraging walk led by London based forager Izzy Johnston.
Mother Trees are large, highly connected trees that play an important role in the flow of information and resources in a forest. Feral Practice will draw on scientific, artistic and more esoteric methods of interspecies communication to suggest how we might connect to trees as persons, teachers, guardians, kin. Vibrant material meetings and exchanges occur at every level of our bodies and worlds but often go un-regarded, or unknown. If we sensitize ourselves (as vegetal philosopher Michael Marder advises) to the fuzzy edges of our subjectivity in order to meet beings very different to ourselves, might it be in the ‘wilds’ of the imagination that we can better re-align with nonhuman nature?
Participants will be drawn into porous visual and sonic connectivity with the plant and fungal world through active listening exercises, participatory performances, solo work, and speculative improvisations. Together, we will seek to listen towards and speak from this lively world beyond the human.
We will be working outdoors for part of the day, so please dress appropriately for the weather, and bring suncream/umbrella as required. We will be walking for a while, slowly, mostly on fairly level ground but also through the wilder areas of parks. If you have access questions please ask and we will do our best to accommodate you.
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/sonic-fields-02-feral-practice-be-my-mother-i-said-to-the-trees-tickets-167623615747
