What's next?

Marie Smith January 10, 2022

I want to go back to my initial post and the questions that I posed myself which was the aim of my research and the purpose of this blog:

I will spend the next six months researching and engaging with this topic and seeing how nature and environmentalism can be engaging people from communities of colour. I want to find people in my local community of Brixton, South London to see how they think and feel about climate change.

On reflection, I think that I have been able to stick to the main aims and objectives of my initial blog but I have seen myself shift and starting to absorb and be more considerate to what I was trying to do with my practice and research goals.

I was a bit ambitious, especially regarding the community engagement element, this is only something that I am beginning to shape and I am working on a series of workshops that I will be initiating this summer. I will also be embarking on a residency - New Forest National Park Artist in Residence with an organisation called SPUD Works, this residency will culminate with an exhibition in October 2022.

I have found that my practice and my ideas and responsibilities have shifted immensely and I don’t see myself going back to how I used to work. I won’t be working in colour photography anymore (as not part of ‘my work’) as the cost and environmental factors mean that this is not a sustainable way for me to work. I also have more autonomy developing, scanning, and making work at home in my own darkroom and I have found that I have been resourceful with the work that I am making. I definitely feel comfortable and certain of myself with the avenue that I wish to take my practice.

Image taken from the series, The Wanderer, December 2021, ©Marie Smith

I have made a new series of work, titled The Wanderer, a body of work that consolidates all of my research ideas and poses a new aesthetic that will be explored further in the workshops and residency.

I am now able to answer and provide more context to what I was initially interested in researching and will be looking to make the process of my work as engaging and collaborative, I will be using my working methodology from Whispering for help to aid the work and residency as I believe that I have developed some good transferable skills that I would like to expand upon. I will be working on my project proposal and identifying the demographics that I wish to work with.

I now have a better understanding of terms such as nature, sustainability, and climate change and how it applies to my work, therefore I can now start implementing those terms into my practice. I am excited and also feel buoyant about what is coming next for me and my practice. My focus has shifted and I am grateful that I was given the opportunity and funding to explore a new area that seemed very abstract to me until now.

Reflecting on belonging and the gardens of Jamaica Kincaid

Marie Smith June 25, 2021

I’ve been reading about Jamaica Kincaid’s gardens in Vermont. Her book is curated with illustrations and refined sentences about her appreciation and relationship with gardening and the American landscape of Vermont; a northeastern state that borders the Canadian Provence of Quebec and has a distinct Englishness that feels familiar.

Vermont is part of the New England region and is the second least populated state in the US. Before Europeans colonised the US, there was a healthy indigenous population that inhabited the area for 12,000 years. My knowledge of Vermont before reading Kincaid extended to knowing about their Senator - Bernie Sanders, cold weather, and about how white the population is.

So it was a surprise to read about Kincaid; an Antiguan-American writer, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer living amongst the landscape that contrasted from her own upbringing in the Caribbean. I found myself easily absorbed by Kincaid’s writing, it felt like I was having a conversation with her and she has created vivid illustrations of the mountains of Vermont, the extreme weather, and the gardens that she has nurtured whilst living with her (then) husband and two young children.

Jamaica Kincaid is a Black woman who is mostly living in a white space surrounded by the history of England’s colonialism so this element must have felt familiar to her as she grew up in Angugia which only gained its independence in 1981 (the year I was born). However, the island and her memories do appear in the book infrequently and come in and out so it’s not really the focus of the book - the garden and her present existence in Vermont are at the forefront. However, the drastic difference between Antigua and Vermont does provide a point of reflection for me.

Kincaid is obviously passionate about gardening and is dedicated and appreciative of the cycle of nature and the abundance that her garden provides for her. The solace and a purpose for her, but also practical elements are not skimmed over such as the money spent buying new trees and flowers and the battles she faces when her attempts to furnish new life into her gardens don’t go to plan. At one point someone mentions cutting down some trees - this horrifies her and after the incident, she goes around her garden and apologises to the trees individually. You see she cares deeply and this act doesn’t seem absurd in the slightest.

I am only halfway through reading My Garden (Book) so there is still much to process in her writing and also regarding her relationship to nature. Currently, she is living in a house that was owned by the photographer which feels quite fitting! So I have been writing quite a few notes recently and I am working to start interviewing artists/writers/photographers/environmentalists about how nature is integrated into their life and practice.

Kincaid has also prompted me to think about what avenues I want to go down with my own practice. Will be something journalistic, personal, and reflective of the conflicting relationship with a place that has been enriched by the legacy of slavery and colonialism or will I choose to be more direct and address this history and by acknowledging it I can then reframe the narrative that reaffirms my belonging in UK.

I always find non-fiction writing more inspiring sometimes than academic writing, the narrative and the personal are easier to latch onto and I take strength from seeing someone similar to me thinking and processing similar ideas to myself. Makes me feel less alone.

Collages of trees in Brockwell Park - June 2021

GRIEF, PLACE, LANDSCAPE – A contradiction of sorts by Marie Smith - reflections on a commission for The Clearing

Marie Smith June 11, 2021

I was recently commissioned by Simon Moreton to write a piece for The Clearing titled Grief, Place, Landscape - A contradictions of sort. The brief was open and it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the contradictions and conflicting feelings that I have about my relationship with nature and the environment.

Personally, I have been trying to counter my carbon footprint and I am trying to be sustainable in the products that I use in my flat. I am slowly trying to transition to become a Vegan, most of my diet is Vegetarian but I am hoping that I can fully transition to Veganism. At some point.

This means that I am developing a deeper and more sincere understanding of the environment, but this is a slight digression from my commission from The Clearing. But back to point at hand…. the piece is written from a position of contradiction and confusion. Here, I was sat in a hotel in Cumbria in early May working on another commission, in an unfamiliar place but I was excited by the prospect of exploring a new location.

I was alone and this was an unfamiliar feeling and context for me to explore a new place. This brought lots of feelings and negging reoccurring fears that come to me when I find myself alone in nature. The threat of violence and the feeling that I would look out of place to some, as a Black woman is a constant whirling loop that goes through my mind. At times my body becomes tens, I put it down to carrying my heavy camera but I think it’s my anxiety turning my body into stone

It’s not the place or landscape that I fear, it’s mostly the people and their attitudes that put me in a position of fear, racism and sexism are daily battles that I face but this is heightened when I am alone and outside of London. I am trying to sit with this feeling and the contradictions that come with my relationship with nature.

All this came out in a flurry and I was glad that I was able to articulate feelings and positions of the current context of my relationship with nature and, specifically with the landscape of England. All of this is feeding into my identity which seems to be shifting and filtering through to my practice.

Many thanks to Simon and The Clearing for providing me with the space to reflect and flesh out my thoughts

Photos from my WIP 2021 project - photos of trees in Brockwell Park, South London