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Andy Maule shares his newly finished recycled brick garden creation in lockdown.

I thought you might be interested in the completion (in lockdown) of this long term project. Following my obsession for creative-making the project has involved recycling bricks (from a past building project) and, more notably, moulded bricks rescued from the demolition of Mattishall First School in 2010/11.

Mattishall First School

The Victorian school used bricks made at Costessey brick works by Gunton Bros. Gunton Bros supplied most of the decorated/moulded/modelled bricks in the Norwich area, including the highly decorated facade of Jarrolds in Norwich (ColonelUnthanksNorwich.com).

What do you do with several tons of more-or-less intact bricks?  Make a garden folly, of course. The folly is a three-leaf zigzag that starts nowhere particular and ends nowhere particular, and serves no real purpose, except to act as a homage to Mattishall First School. The head/face is not from the school but adds to the interest. The aim now is to let nature take hold and see what happens.

An article written by Melinda Appleby, W&BA Vice Chair

It’s May, and the countryside is splashed green and white as spring moves into summer and the changing palette of flowers evolves. The cowslips have gone to seed and are replaced by bugle, ground ivy, red campion and ox-eye daisies. The year is hiccoughing between hot and cold spells and summer migrants are still slow arriving. The house martins came to their home nest two weeks late. A party of thirty swifts whirled over on 5th May. Cuckoos are calling along the river valleys and the hedgerows are full of whitethroats. 

The sunshine has brought out the butterflies and we have seen holly blue, orange tip, brimstone, tortoiseshell and green veined white. 

This week would have been our village Flower Festival and we were to host the first of Waveney & Blyth Arts BioBlitz events focusing on the bugs and blossoms found in country churchyards.  These workshops were planned to explore biodiversity and encourage inspired art work. Alongside the arts activity, a naturalist would have worked with us to identify as many species as we can. 

Old burial grounds often have fantastic, flowery grassland as they have been so little disturbed over the centuries. A churchyard or burial site may be the most ancient enclosed piece of land in a parish, perhaps even older than the church building, having its roots in pre-Christian times. Apart from grave digging, the grassland will have been relatively undisturbed, re-seeding naturally for hundreds of years. A benefit of this is a diversity of grasses and flowers and associated animals and insects, some of which may now be rare in Britain.

In the absence of the workshop I decided anyway to spend some time in the churchyard exploring the wildlife. It is quiet here. Set amongst meadows, on a slight rise in the land, the church peeps through tall hedges of cherry plum and apple. Looking north I can see the Dove valley with its string of water meadows, and the breeze brings the sound of cattle. The sky is an intense blue, the air as clear as mountain mornings. They say the lack of pollution is giving us these pin sharp days. Were the trees ever that green?

My BioBlitz list is a small start at recognising all the wildlife that occupies this country churchyard…

Birds: song thrush, nuthatch, wren, robin, wood pigeon, chiffchaff, blackcap, blue tit.
Mammals: none seen but evidence of muntjac, rabbit, mole.
Plants: red campion, cowslip, ox-eye daisy, bugle, forget-me-not, buttercup, germander speedwell.
Insects: red-tailed bumble bee, damselfly, soldier beetle, crane fly.

More time and more systematic hunting needed. 

The churchyard is host to old friends and I pause to remember them. On the west of the church the graves are older, lichen coloured, capturing families and stories of the village long past. At this time when death seems to be a daily newscast, I ponder life and loss. What will I leave behind? What should I do while I am here? 

The BioBlitz planned to encourage art work, poetry and short nature notes; thoughts on the churchyard or the wildlife or both. I tried my hand at a poem about our link to the land.

Laid to Earth

I want to be of this land, to be sinewed
by rock and root; to be fed by it in seed
and fruit; to borrow wool from the sheep,
weave cloth for my comfort. Hear music
of the wind’s play in poplars, laugh
with chuckle of water under the bridge.
I want to be nurtured by sun; cup apples
warm from the tree, heft them in my palm
or bite the pear, the lazy  juice sweetly running. 

When I can no longer sing of the land
or hear its calling; see only blue mist coiling
round the farm, forget the blackbird
rousing the dawn, then I want to lie in the roots
of oak, in the fold of meadows, cradled
and crooked by river and wood; turn
to the earth for sleep, returning bone
to bone, unwinding sinews and sinking
back to this land from where I came sweetly running.

Waveney & Blyth Arts launched Bugs & Blossoms in 2019 to promote events that encourage people to notice insects and flowers and to facilitate positive action. The initiative aims to work across all the creative arts – to celebrate the wild flowers and insects that are part of our lives. But also for the arts to draw attention to the plight of many of these species and to encourage people to be inspired by them and to take action, however small and however local, to conserve them.

You can read more about Bugs & Blossoms, along with details on our BioBlitz Art project over on our Bug & Blossoms page. If you would like to share with us some photos, notes on the biodiversity, or artistic responses to the wild patches or churchyards in your area, please email us at [email protected]

Photo by Mike Erskine on Unsplash

A blog post by Stephen Worrall

No doubt many of us have been rummaging through the garden shed, sorting out recycling or clearing the wood pile during the lock down. I have been attempting to see the ordinary, everyday things you find in a garden in a different way, with an artist’s appreciation of possibilities! 

There are possibilities in many objects we take for granted. Seen out of context, or simply presented in a different light, items found in your garden, garage or shed can be a source of artistic exploration. To paraphrase, art is in the eye of the beholder. 

I realised I had a rather large heap of used wire netting hiding behind my wood store. I had never really noticed it, so rarely did I push my way around the netting mountain! I have used chicken wire netting before as a sculptural medium, forming hanging pods and tubular forms for an earlier Sculpture Trail. So my eye was caught by a squared netting roll I had used to protect some young fruit trees. I like a quick result. So how to use this netting simply, in an abstract sense, in contrast to it’s functionality? So with a nod to the typical protective boxes of netting placed around a young tree, I have simply tilted and balanced the forms, changing their function. Netting is ephemeral, it can disappear completely, or stand out in contrast when light at night. 

Another functional item I discovered, again, it has been in full view in my garage for years, but went un-noticed. A lovely zinc drain pipe, a spare left over from a roofing project years ago. I think I have always admired the pipe, it’s smooth perfectly formed shape, the unusual material; it has been subconsciously catalogued for a higher purpose. To me it must stand alone, unashamedly straight and perfect. Its presence heightened when seen in relation to a natural form. Pure simplicity. 

The pandemic has forced us to reassess how we live, to see life from a new perspective; why not also creatively reassess our environment and see everyday objects from a new artistic perspective…art is in the eye of the beholder! 

From April 6-11^th I had planned to be in North Italy, flying to Verona and from there taking train trips to visit Vicenza, Mantua and Padua, and with a bit of luck a Palladian Villa by public transport, which might have been a bit of a challenge. In fact due to the situation in Northern Italy and elsewhere, of course I never got to Northern Italy and all the museums and historic buildings were closed.

I hadn’t made any work for months, as felt rather low because of frequent rejections. However partly as some kind of sympathetic connection with the situation of the people in Northern Italy, and the wish to get something positive out of my non-existent artistic trip, I started to do some virus drawings of works I had either seen last year in Northern Italy, or which I would’ve seen this April. These included works by Mitelli (Bologna), Giotto (Scrovegni Chapel Padua) and Guilio Romano (Palazzo del Te, Mantua).

Having finished these, which really helped lift my mood of disappointment at the cancelled trip, I then started a short series of virus drawings based on other artworks, eg. Gainsborough’s The Morning Walk, Bruegel’s The Beekeepers, and Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass.

Chrysalis Arts Development is pleased to announce the publication of: Greening Arts Practice: A Guide for Artists

The Greening Arts Practice Guide or ‘GAP Guide’ is a guide for artists and arts organisations who want to develop a more environmentally responsible arts practice. The Guide is free, and can be downloaded from the Chrysalis Arts Development website. An online version will follow in the near future. It brings together what we have learned about art and artists addressing the climate crisis and related issues, through over a decade of work related to this subject. It also features 11 case studies from a diverse range of artists together with examples of our own recent work. 

The Guide aims to offer a range of entry points and approaches for artists at different stages in their creative practice. It is not intended to be a ‘how-to’ or a definitive toolkit, but instead aims to create an opportunity for artists to question and develop their work, supported by the range of knowledge we can share. We hope that the Guide will help artists to tackle the issues and constraints which will inevitably arise, by learning from the direct experiences and reflections of others. 

As we all try to become more environmentally responsible, sharing the knowledge we have is of utmost importance. We plan to evolve the Guide over time, as we continue to focus our efforts in this area. 

To download the GAP Guide, please visit chrysalisarts.com

More information about the GAP Guide will be featured on our Twitter @chrysalisarts, Instagram @chrysalisarts and Facebook @chrysalisarts.

Chrysalis Arts Development is a North Yorkshire based Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation with a commitment to environmentally responsible arts practice. We provide a range of creative development opportunities for artists across northern areas as well as develop- ing audiences for high-quality contemporary visual arts.

This is the second part of our write up about our Fantastic Fungi Event held on 5th arch 2020. To read the first part, click here.

After an informative and inspirational presentation about  the Mushrooms Exhibition on at Somerset House, we introduced our first guest speaker for the morning, Dr Tony Leech.

Leech is a highly respected fungus expert and enthusiast who leads identification walks for many organisations including the National Trust and Norfolk Wildlife Trust. He taught Biology for 27 years and is the Norfolk County Fungus Recorder. He is an entertaining and informative speaker whose talk delved into the world of folklore, ancient beliefs and the deadly power of fungi…

Witches and Devils: The Darker Side of Fungi

During this intriguing talk, Dr Tony Leech gave examples of the links between fungi and the history of witchcraft.

Dr Leech discusses the well known ‘Toadstool’

Witches Butter was so named supposedly because of a folk tale involving a woman churning milk which refused to turn to butter because it had been looked upon by a witch. Of course, as with many of these stories, the witch comes to a sticky end.

Along with Witches Butter, there are some wonderful names for fungi that link back to witchcraft. Witches Egg is another name for Stinkhorn, and Devils Fingers or Devils Claws are related to it. Devils Bolete is the only Bolete that is poisonous, and one of only around 20 species of fungi in the UK that is poisonous.

Leech also covered some of the problematic folklore around how to identify edible mushrooms, including prompts like ‘does is blacken a silver spoon?’ And ‘does it peel easily?’ Unsurprisingly, these were not good gages as to how safe it is to eat different varieties of mushroom.

Chaos at Salem Witch Trails

Interestingly, Leech explained that the strongest link between fungi and witchcraft came down to this kind of knowledge- is this mushroom safe to eat or not? From the middle ages, a woman who lived slightly outside a village or town and who had knowledge about edible mushrooms and ones that could be used for their medicinal properties, could be seen as some kind of threat. Being on the margins of society made such women easy to blame for things such as bad harvests, and therefore they would be tried as witches and got rid of.

In records of the last Salem witch trials, Leech pointed out how its worth noting the descriptions of strange behaviour taking place, including fits and hallucinations. At the time, these symptoms were put down to the witches on trail cursing people, however these symptoms also align with signs of mushroom poisoning. We were left to think of that at the end of Leech’s talk.

Next, we had Jon Tyler introduce mushrooms in a more general sense.

Jon Tyler, is a highly experienced forager and bush-craft practitioner with a natural passion and enthusiasm for wildlife, wild food and outdoor living. He gave a broad introduction to fungi, their unique character, field characteristics and role in the ecological system. He talked about the varieties that are special to this area and how to forage for them…

The General Characteristics of Mushroom Varieties

Technically, the word ‘mushroom’ refers to the umbrella-like form of the fruiting body of a fungus. The unseen root network known as mycelium is what makes up the rest of the fungus.

Saprophytes

In this type of fungi, Tyler explained that the mycelium threads excrete enzymes that breakdown dead or decaying organic matter such as wood. Species like the Giant Polypore will start off as a parasite, taking from 40 to 100 years to kill a tree. Once the tree is dead, the Polypore will revert to a saprophyte and live off the dead wood.

Felted Fly Agaric by Dotty Scotty

Conversely, the Fly Agaric- one of the most written about varieties of fungi- has recently been understood to actually aid the trees living around it.  Fly Agarics can form partnerships with nearby trees, particularly birch and pines, creating mycorrhizal associations with the trees’ roots, extending the root base and in turn receiving some of the nutrients those roots take out of the soil. Fly Agaric are now known to be unable to survive without this relationship, so they will only be found where there are trees nearby.

Edible mushrooms selection by Jon Tyler

Tyler went on to discuss other ways in which fungi aid the woodland system, including that they break down up to 2 meters of fallen leaves each year, keeping woodland floors rich in soil. It is estimated that there are around 15,000 fungus species in the UK, most of which can be found in wooded areas.

Fairy Rings

Something that Jon Tyler and Tony Leech both touched upon is the phenomenon of the fairy ring. Only visible as circles of dark grass for most of the year, but fruiting into a ring of mushrooms in autumn, fairy rings were once theorised to be the result of lighting strikes, dancing fairies or even courting mushrooms! Now it is understood that an entire ring comes from just one single fungus spore germinating and producing mycelium which grows out from the centre in a network of threads. As the root-like system grows outward, the central parts die off, meaning when it fruits, the mushrooms come up on the outskirts of the mycelium circle, forming a ring. The network continues to grow underground as the centre dies off, so year on year these fiery rings get larger.  Tyler had recently visited one that measured 40 metres across and is estimated to be 500 years old. Some types of fairy ring can spread to as wide as 2 square kilometres.

Incredible facts peppered both talks, and I feel I came away from the talks almost more fascinated than I was before the day began. Thankfully the experience wasn’t entirely over as there were some wonderful displays to look through in The Cut Cafe. Jon Tyler exhibited some of his mushroom paraphernalia, while Halesworth book shop provided a fine selection of mushroom-themed books.

Dotty Scotty’s Felted Fungi

The pièce de résistance was by far Joanna Scott’s display of hand felted mushrooms and garden birds. Made using natural wool, a barbed needle and a lot of stabbing, Scott’s creations were beautiful to behold. A small workshop was held for those who wanted to try their hand at making their own mushroom and I’m only sad I didn’t get to stick around to see the end results!

All in all, it was a great morning. We’d like to say a special thanks to our guest speakers Dr Tony Leech and Jon Tyler for sharing their expertise, and to Joanna Scott for sharing her gorgeous creations with us.

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On Thursday 5th March 2020, we launched our first event of the year, Fantastic Fungi, with guest speakers Jon Tyler and Dr Tony Leech, along side a pop up exhibit of felt artist Joanna Scott’s mushroom-inspired creations.

We started the talk with an introduction from our new Chair, Genevieve Rudd, and then dove straight into an exploration of the Mushrooms exhibition at Somerset House with former Chair, Nicky Stainton, and new Marketing Officer, Hatty Leith (that’s me!).

Mushrooms: The Art, Design and Future of Fungi

As climate change becomes a crisis we cannot ignore, the fragility and complexity of the natural world is becoming hugely resonant… Increasingly, fungi are appearing in contemporary art and design. Mushrooms became prominent in paintings, drawing and collages by contemporary artists in the 1960s… Today there is a veritable explosion of mushrooms in art. Why are artists and designers so drawn to fungi?” Francesca Gavin, Curator

The exhibition at Somerset House explores this question with a series of small rooms, each encapsulating aspects of human fascination with Fungi, from watercolour studies by Beatrix Potter, to Kristel Peters’ shoes made from mycelium. A glass cabinet in the centre of one room displays of old editions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, illustrated by different artists, laid open side by side at the iconic plate: a depiction of the blue philosophical caterpillar, Absolem, sat atop a bright red ‘toadstool’ that, after the talk today, I now know is a Fly Agaric (Amanita muscaria). While this mushroom definitely has hallucinogenic properties, in reality it’s more likely to have put child Alice into a coma than make her very tall or very small.

Mushrooms have become visual shorthand for referencing the ecstatic and hallucinogenic. Contemporary scientists are taking psilocybe mushrooms very seriously to help treat addiction, depression and other mental issues.” Francesca Gavin, Curator

One installation encourages you to stand in the centre of three lurid green tv screens as the videos playing simulate the feeling of a magic mushroom induced high. Another display talks of the groundbreaking 1957 article in Life magazine ‘Seeking the Magic Mushroom’. This article has been widely blamed for bringing hallucinogenic mushrooms to the forefront of the public eye, resulting in its recreational use and the eventual stigma that saw scientific studies into its medicinal use banned or underfunded. It is only now, 60 years later, that studies are beginning to gain traction again.

Nicky and I shared our thoughts on some of the artists’ work that stood out to us. My personal favourites were the hand cut collages by ‘Cut and Paste Magician’ Seana Gavin. Her surreal creations include city scapes cut out of natural forms where mushrooms become large buildings with industrial chimneys, or a combination of bright, obscure fungi become a composition worth of a space opera. It comes as no surprise to hear she is influenced heavily by the likes of Hieronymus Bosch.

The work that stayed with Nicky the most was the Infinity Burial Suit created by Korean-American artist Jae Rhim Lee. The suit is made from mushrooms and other biological materials that help decompose a human body. The process delivers nutrients to surrounding plants, while cleansing the body and soil of toxins that would be bad for the environment. Lee has set up the company Coeio to sell her burial suits online for $1500. On the website, Lee asks “Could mushrooms be the symbol and tool for a cultural shift in how we think about death and our relationship to the planet?” Since first asking this question to herself, Lee has worn her burial suit to fashion shows and even during a TED Talk in 2011. You can watch her talk here.

Fungi are everywhere. They exist under the earth, on top of our skin and inside our bodies. Their spores are floating around us constantly… They are growing into the human imagination.” Francesca Gavin, Curator

A Morning of Fantastic Fungi: Part Two can be viewed here, where I talk about what we’ve learned from the insightful talks by Jon Tyler and Dr Tony Leech.

If you’re a W&BA member and have an idea in mind for a blog post you’d like to write for us, please get in touch. Email [email protected] to discuss your article and we might publish it here.