HNB (part 2)

How Nature Builds is an ongoing series of workshops collaborating with Oxford-based artists and working between Wytham Woods and Modern Art Oxford.

Between July and August 2022, I ran the second series of How Nature Builds workshops in collaboration with Modern Art Oxford and a group of local artists. We explored ways of making natural inks from foraged materials gathered in Whytham woodland and considered how nature makes its mark on a particular landscape and transforms it over time. The workshops ran in conjunction with the MAO exhibition of Ruth Asawa’s work and were inspired by her interest in patterns in nature and organic forms as well as the notion of ‘negative space’ or what might be considered as the space between things.

In the workshops, we explored natural colour and form through site visits to Whytham Woods, where we foraged materials to make natural inks and sketched patterns inspired by trees and plants. We also discussed botanical histories, folklore and traditional summer celebrations of nature as ways of thinking about seasonal rhythms and modes of relation within the natural world.

Creative exploration explored three key themes as approaches to making work:

1. Foraging for Colour

2. Pattern and Story

3. Growth and Transformation

Participating artists: Anita Joice, Alice Fincher, Alice Hackney, Angela Edwards, Cornelia Chen, Nasrin Dabri, Kasia Gryszcuk, David Barron, Caroline Shelvey.

With MAO assistant facilitator and artist Sian Gourley.