Circulating Energies

These are images from a project I participated in as part of my time as an Artist Associate at Open School East.  The project was delivered as 2 workshops as part of the closing weekend programme at the Chaleur Humaine, Dunkirk Art and Industry Triennial 2023/24.

The project is called Circulating Energies and was a cross boarder programme between Open School East and Ecole Superieure d’Art, Dunkirk, devised and led by artist Hugh Nicholson. It was designed to consider the relationship between energy production, ecology, and contemporary art, by examining their shared politics, forms and futures.

My contribution was an altar to the sacred power of the seed.
A meditation on the infinite power and potential of each individual seed.
A lesson from the most advanced teacher we have on this planet. Nature.

A meditation that uses heritage echinacea seeds. Seeds that are fully natural and organic, which produce a plant that is not only a beautiful pollinating flower, but a flower that is known to have healing, immune boosting properties when used as tea or a tincture.

What’s more, is that it’s a perennial plant – meaning that once sewn, it will grow again and again each year.
There is so much to take from this.
Nature gives so much and asks for so little.
A generative system that gives infinitely more that it takes.

This tray is my prayer for the energy of mother nature, to penetrate the humanity of those that claim artificial power and sovereignty over her. Forgetting that we belong to her, and that she doesn’t belong to us.

A prayer for life.
A return to the soil.
A prayer for the understanding that the earth, it’s beings, and its caretakers should be protected at all costs.

The prompt cards are designed to create a moment of introspection within the viewer, a small window of time within which to acknowledge the profoundness and majesty of nature.

Incense Sticks: Temple of Incense
Photos: George Harding