I was invited to write a blog post for Norfolk & Norwich Festival on my Yarmouth Springs Eternal in February 2021. The article shares some background on the inspiration and research that inspired the project, and how the project will be delivered this year. For the latest updates on the project, follow @YarmouthSprings on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook:
I’ve stared out at my back garden from my desk in Gorleston-on-sea almost everyday since March 2020. It’s usually the place I make plans before travelling elsewhere in the region to lead Community Arts projects. Whilst indoors under ‘Stay at Home’ orders, I look out and notice rows of packed terrace houses with square windows looking back at me, blocks of dense leylandii hedge and intersections of alleyways. I can see shed roofs in weathered shades of brown and grey, every so often featuring a prowling cat. Birds zip from tree to tree and clouds swirl in ever-changing formations against skies of pink, blue, grey and white.
As you can tell from the description, this suburban view isn’t a nature reserve and if I search for images of a “nature view” online, the acid green hills and waterfalls don’t resemble what I see! These idealised perceptions of nature can give distorted expectations and unhelpfully separate us from feeling part of the natural world. For me, the Lockdown experience has highlighted that ‘experiencing the natural world’ isn’t a phenomena happening elsewhere in vast conservation-managed pastoral landscapes, it’s also the vernacular view from my desk window and found on daily walks around town.
Read the full article on the Norfolk & Norwich Festival blog