You Are Here - Day One

Hello there.

My name is Subhadassi, and I'm starting the blog as a means of documenting, and inviting responses to, the Artist Residency I have just begun at College Lake.

It is titled "We Are Here".


Yesterday I was on site for the first day of the residency.

Alistair Will, Project Manager at Outdoor Culture who have set up the residency, and I had a walk round the lake in glorious sunshine. Then we met with Cathie Hasler, who works on site for BBOWT (Berks, Bucks and Oxon Wildlife Trust) and will be managing the project from their end.

After the meeting I then had a chance to spend some more time around the lake, to take some photos and to do some thinking.



What Will Be Happening As Part of The Residency?


Good question.

I am an artist, and mainly use writing and and photography as my media. See my website for more about me.

Over the next few months, I will be spending some days on site talking to people, and I will also be wandering about and nosing around responding to the site, and to the visitors.

I will be working with schools, community groups, volunteers/staff, and visitors encouraging them to look at the site from different points of view.

At the end of the residency, we will have a book, there will be an exhibition, and much more!


What Will The Residency Be Focussing On?

All I'll say in this first post is that I'm very interested in why people visit natural environments, and on the effect that this has on them.

I am also interested in how natural and man-made worlds interact, come together, and have conversations with each other. This is very evident at the lake which used to the the site of a chalk quarry.


I was wondering yesterday whether environments could be seen as models, or mirrors, to who we are - and whether the more rich, beautiful, varied and multi-layered the environment(s) we put ourselves in, the more richness this draws from us.

This seems to accord with my experience.

I live in central London, in a place which - though I love it in many ways - is grimy, grey, and has many perpendicular angles, concrete and tarmac, and as an environment it is quite restricted.

And I know what that can sometimes do to my heart and head.

I am reminded part of a poem by William Wordsworth (but try not to hold that against me):

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not. 

Why do you spend time in nature (if you do)? I'd love to hear....