A Rural Idyll
In the Forest Garden
Inner Landscapes
Absent Presence
Trace
Photomontage
Performative Drawing
Act of Listening
About
@hortus_silvam
2021
Performance to camera documented in moving image; drawing; writing
Documenting a moment of contemplation on the hardy, prolific Rubus fruticosus pioneer plant, with lethal thorns and long, arching stems that keenly develop deep suckering roots.
Single channel HD video, stereo sound, text
Cinematic screening: 1 min 02 sec
digging in the soil, unearthing, revealing
the blackbird heralds
in full summer song
digging in the soil, unearthing, revealing
the severed heart of bramble
balancing, battling, mixed blessing;
nursing the new, neglectful nuisance
the blackbird heralds
in full summer song
forest garden, quiet activism, environment, time
A reminder that the forest garden lies undecided between meadow, wasteland, woodland or forest.
Location: Forest Garden, Suffolk
The Forest Garden Project is a developing concept which exists somewhere between ecological research, quiet activism, ritual, experiment and performance. A space of contradiction, slowness and listening in collaboration with the flora and fauna. In response to a search for the ‘rural idyll’ in places of increasing marginalisation, where the rural and industrial intersect and elide; where genetically engineered technologies turn fields into labs blurring the boundaries between the natural and the synthetic. The Forest Garden Project attempts to counter this lonely place of silent disquiet which reflects a bewildered disbelief at the damage we wreak on the natural world.
forest garden, quiet activism, environment, magic realism, time
© Sophie Standford