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There is something of the DJ in how I started to look for information at the beginning of Forest Bounds. Happily sampling architectural features pressed out of tinfoil, mixing them with a fine metal tree skin, allowing the openness of collecting as you encounter place, and then playfully aligning forms and shapes, beats and tempo as I blended new realities.
There was an underlying search for meaningful place. An amalgam of references that could voice where you were and at the same time inventing an other. The new spaces became a possible answer to our persevered stuck cultural environment. Some magical thinking. Finding in this first iteration an alternative context of The Forest, and now the prospect of The Island of Venice. The idea of sampling from a variety of physical places and cultural spaces, to alter or blend space, mood or question experience, gives a freedom to collecting and mixing that I found people wanted to share about their relationship to The Forest. Much of this comes from the workshops that I did. Almost none of which gave with the academic cultural response expected. Two primary and sometimes contradictorily ideas came through. The first is people wanted to know more about one’s own culture. The other is the freedom to be playful with it, exchange ideas, and fuse this with others. I have experienced this more directly with my adopted sons who both love the nostalgia of Thailand and learning about that identity but are also at home with cultural appropriation from other mixed cultural friendship groups.
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Is our own indigenous knowledge inside us, inherited through generations? Is it specific to place, through environment, available materials or social need?
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Could we, should we learn and use others indigenous knowledge freely or is this cultural appropriation too problematic? What happens when it comes to global problem solving and sharing indigenous knowledge for new drugs, agriculture and land management? Who benefits, who doesn't? How do we retain our culture heritage and share it positively at the same time?
Joshua Raffell and Dave Smithers (The Artists Husband) - www.joshuaraffellart.com
Anusha Ramchand - www.anusharamchand.co.uk
Dayanny So – www.dayannyso.com
Kwame Bakoji-Hume – www.africanactivities.org.uk
And a huge thank you to three others who brought the range of knowledge and experience to make the day so successful.
Priyal Mistry – Creative
Anika Raza – Creative
And Edward Humphries from Portsmouth University who brought rich knowledge with his research into his paper titled – The Ancient Connections of Indigenous Architecture