TABOO - TRANSGRESSION - TRANSCENDENCE

In 2024, one of the most significant acts in my creative practice was two days spent at Groundswell, Regenerative Agriculture Festival, Lannock Farm, Hertfordshire.

The Groundswell Festival, with 8000+ delegates, provides a forum for farmers, growers, and anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems, including no-till, cover crops and re-introducing livestock into the arable rotation, to improve soil health. It is a 'festival' with little music but with five marquees hosting over a hundred talks, forums and discussions from two hundred speakers from around the globe. It is a practical show aimed at anyone who wants to understand the farmers’ core asset, the soil, and make better-informed decisions from leading international soil health experts, experienced arable and livestock farmers, agricultural policy experts, practical demonstrations and field trials, from policy-makers attracted by the 'public benefits' of such systems as carbon sequestration and flood/drought prevention.

Attending the conference strengthened my artistic focus on the relationship between land, soil, and our ecosystem. Through 2025, I plan to expand my work in this field with my current project, "The Pond in Us" with Prof. Sian Harding, looking at how our gut microbiome originates in our evolutionary time in the water through a series of drawings and 3D PLA sculptures and in a specific work I am making for Groundswell 2025, "The Tree Beneath Our Feet", a work linking nutrition, soil, water and sunlight, our need to care for this ecosystem, made in the language of festival going, using the material of tents and marquees.

I want to discuss these projects in my talk, their production and exhibition, the important lessons gleaned from the festival, and how these ideas radically adjust how we should view and live on this planet.