Creative Climate Fest – Gaia Redgrave
- Posted by Lawrence Mathias
- On
A fascinating workshop will be held over the festival weekend, aiming to reconnect participants with their creativity through nature. Gaia Redgrave has just published a book, ‘Rewilding the Artist’, which she will use as the basis for the workshops, using the rich environment of Scolton as her inspiration and creative medium.
We explored the possibilities at several locations in the grounds, the wonderful organic walled garden and the abundant woodland in front of the manor house.
Gaia’s work is deeply intuitive, and through a meditative engagement with the natural world at specific locations, she creates beautiful and often ephemeral pieces of artwork. All of the physical material, which she often records on video, has to be biodegradable outside of the documenting process.
In this weekend’s workshop, the bio diverse flora and fauna of Scolton will provide a focal point for participants. Her book is a type of vade mecum, a companion book for daily life, with natural world insights, poetry, recipes, and explorations into mindfulness, all beautifully typeset and presented. No plastics have been incorporated into the cover or substance of the pages, and as is Gaia’s practice, it is entirely biodegradable.
‘We can use the book as our prompt,’ she told me as we explored Scolton’s walled garden, ‘it’s meant to be adaptable and useful for readers, with some pages left clear for their own notes and observations.’
Being alive to the moment and spontaneous is key to her methods. A small sensory and disability garden space surrounded by trees will provide the location for her two workshops on Saturday.
They will be fluid and accommodating experiences, with participants welcome to spend some time with her exploring the surrounding landscape in words and thoughts, or just to drop in for a 10 minute session. Every contribution will count, and Gaia will literally stitch together words and ideas shared through the afternoon into a wonderful poetry textile which she will craft in the following weeks.
Gaia will be holding two workshops on Saturday 5th, one at 12 PM and the second at 3 PM in the sensory and disability garden. They promise to be unique and memorable experiences for those fortunate to take part in them
