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Environment as Participant

A Residency Reflection

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Date Posted —
17.05.2024

Lancaster University student Isabel Crabtree Parker, studying MA Fine Art, recently undertook a residency with Deco Publique. Here, we reflect with Isabel on our time together.

Over the course of 3 months in early 2024, Isabel met with Elena Jackson and Daisy Williamson of Deco Publique to explore her research interest in Morecambe Bay’s woodland landscapes. Recurring themes emerged during conversations, including the role of participation - whether this be human or environmental interactions; the role of research in art, and equally that of art in research; and alternative ‘gallery’ spaces and ways of presenting research-based work. 

During our conversations, connections became evident in previously unexpected places; links between Deco Publique’s participatory & place-based approach to making work and Isabel’s explorations with, and in, the environment. It quickly became apparent that care was embedded in both our processes, and was something that underpinned all our conversations.

In-keeping with the shape of this residency as an exchange of conversation and insight, here, Isabel speaks with Daisy about her practice, experience of the residency and the shared considerations both artist and arts organisation embed in their work.

Daisy: Firstly, let’s start by introducing ourselves - my name is Daisy and I have been working with Deco Publique for 5 years now, having first joined the team on an internship through the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at Lancaster University. I am a graduate of the Fine Art degree at Lancaster, and my work as a Producer is built on the belief that art and cultural experiences belong to everyone.

Isabel: Hi, I’m Isabel Crabtree Parker, an artist on the MA Fine Art programme at Lancaster University. My multimedia art practice frequently focuses on the environment and ecological phenomena, incorporating drawing and painting to relay the intricate complexity of natural forms within my art. I also incorporate textiles into my work to create sculptural, three-dimensional artworks that interact with natural settings, forming a symbiotic relationship between art and the environment.

At the beginning of the residency I was initially interested in Deco Publique’s developing project, the Morecambe Bay Triennial which expresses their interest in the cultural and artistic development of the area and is being made in partnership with theCoLAB. Morecambe Bay struck me as an ecologically rich, diverse location, encompassing seascapes, wetlands and pockets of woodlands into a vast landscape, and I became particularly fascinated by the local woodlands. We agreed that I should conduct site visits to these spaces, and in doing so I discovered Eaves Wood: owned by the National Trust. This ancient woodland in Silverdale, overlooking the Bay, possesses abundant moss growth and a range of native tree specimens, and became the focus of my work - using overarching themes to guide my research and practical work: ‘growth’, ‘interconnection’, and ‘entanglement’.  

Daisy: Could you talk a little bit about the environment of Eaves Wood and the feeling you get from being there?  

Isabel: Certainly. When you first arrive at Eaves Wood, you turn through a wooden gate and walk up a winding path, enclosed by twisting trees and an old stone wall. This path will take you up, overlooking green fields filled with the faint bleats of sheep. The other will level near a ruin, decorated with dappled stone through the ‘Fairy Ring’: a circle of smoky-grey beech trees. Walking through the woodland will reveal a world stitched together by moss. Verdant carpets decorate the limestone outcrops and ancient walls, while velvety tapestries adorn tall yews and oak, and ribbons of green embellish hazel, rich and lime. 

If you follow the signposts, you will eventually reach King William’s Hill, emerging on limestone pavements to find ‘The Pepperpot’, a monument built for the diamond jubilee of Queen Victoria. The summit will show you a stunning view of the sleepy village of Silverdale, sometimes bathed in hanging mist. Beyond the foliage lies Morecambe Bay, a scene of distant hills and sand interwoven with silvery blue water.

The feelings I got from the area differed from time to time and facilitated the recognition of Eaves Wood not just as a site, but as an entity with its own affective ambience. Having a dialogue with this environment involved maintaining a respectful relationship and awareness of how the wood feels and changes, and how that changes my relationship to it and that of my artwork.

For instance, during my walks I would occasionally get an instinctual feeling to step lightly in one area, or avoid traversing another. This instinct may seem inexplicable at times, rationally speaking, but it reminds us that we as humans are animals and still preserve links to the primal awareness that ties us to nature, of which we are integrally a part. 

Daisy: In our first conversation at the beginning of the residency, you talked about the environment being a participant in your work and we found common ground immediately - do you want to talk a bit more about what you mean by ‘the environment as participant?’ 

Isabel: The idea of the environment as a participant emerged through the concept of dialogues with the environment, which became the focus of my work. I think it’s increasingly important for artists to consider how to interact with environments, especially within the context of climate change, where we’ve witnessed gradual ecological degradation and the loss of our planet’s intricate ecosystems combined with the objectification of nature. The idea of the environment as participant or collaborator in a work recognises the environment as an actor in itself, with the agency to interact with communities of life forms, all in communication together of sorts, including us humans of course. This occurs in a vast, entangled network of exchanges, evoking, provoking and facilitating dialogues and relationships that embrace both the environment and all its inhabitants and visitors, human and non-human alike.

In several experimental pieces the environment participated in my work by leaving mossy debris and patterns on canvas when I placed the material on trees, and when I placed my paintings in Eaves Wood, environmental encounters manifested on them through mossy marks, stains and twig scratches on the surface.

Daisy: We also have spoken a lot about you creating work rooted in research. How do you feel this developed over the residency period and your investigations into Eaves Wood?

Isabel: The residency led to a lot of interesting research developments, such as the use of photographic documentation. The way Deco Publique uses photographic documentation to disseminate research about their projects is very visually engaging. Likewise photographic documentation is an instrumental research tool in my practice and played a significant role during this residency, enabling me to record areas and specimens of interest which I used to develop my studio practice.

During one of our meetings, Daisy and I discussed the significance of photographic documentation research, leading to an exciting conversation concerning the potential of photography as a visual research method to investigate sites, as well as a visually stimulating format of presenting environmental research, as opposed to esoteric scientific data.

Another key research topic for the residency was environmental ethics. Since a lot of my work focused on working in and with Eaves Wood, I needed to ensure my work maintained respect and consideration for the site, in addition to reducing my ecological impact. Elena’s involvement in the practitioner-led organisation In-Situ, which has an environmental code of ethics, was therefore really helpful as a guideline for incorporating ethical working procedures, such as using water-soluble fabric for my site-specific embroidery work. Our meetings together also revealed an interesting ethical overlap between my endeavours in working with environments, and the similar ethical procedures Deco Publique undertakes to work with artists and external organisations.

Daisy: I think another area we connected and could both share insights over was in our discussions about exhibiting work. In Deco Publique’s projects, we rarely commission or create work specifically for gallery spaces. What environment do you think best lends itself to your work?

Isabel: That’s a very interesting question! The curatorial context is vital to consider when displaying work because it holds a lot of influence over the perception of an artwork. While some of my previous work, specifically paintings and drawings, have worked well within a gallery space, the idea of presenting my residency work in a “White Cube” format seemed unsuitable for this work, because it removes the artwork from the very context of its making: Eaves Wood. Presenting the work in the woodland felt like the best environment for my work because it initiated a dialogical interaction with the site; and can offer a more democratic and less elitist message about accessing artworks publicly. So the embroidery work in A Subtle Encounter, (2024) was placed on trees, the threads intertwined with mossy leaves and furthermore, paintings received marks from their placing amid the moss and trees.

Isabel: What do you think we will both take away from this residency experience?

In my case, the residency has taught me a lot about how to communicate with arts organisations, and I think our conversational approach has contributed to some really fascinating insights, like the ethical overlap between my work with environments, and Deco Publique’s ethical focus working collaboratively with artists and the general public. Our conversations about photography as a research methodology in both our work has also contributed a lot of valuable ideas for how to develop my photographic documentation research further and present it to audiences, which has been tremendously energising to my developing art practice as an emerging artist.

Daisy: I think for me, it’s the importance of cultural organisations and artists broadening the definition of what we consider participation to be. It isn't only people attending a workshop or a member of the public physically contributing to an artist’s piece - it’s recognising that the context in which an artist or organisation is working, whether it is social or environmental, contributes to the outcome. And it brings us back to care; for the place, people or situation you are working in, as ultimately, these things are all participants in the work.

Photography and artwork by Isabel Crabtree Parker

Image 6: A Subtle Encounter

Image 7: Entangled Growth

Image 8: Bloom