Research Festival 2023

For the Camberwell Fine Art MA Research Festival 2023, I am giving a 45 minute lecture followed by a 15 minute Q&A/ discussion. I have planned the structure of my critical reflection such that it doubles as a blueprint for this lecture. In summary, I will briefly discuss my journey from painting to multimedia (more briefly than I do so in the critical reflection), and then split the bulk of my discussion into 1. SPACE and then 2. MATERIALITY. In the space section, I will discuss my analysis of London's space constraints, finding the garden as interzone, and critical theory on the garden as political. Discussing the garden is the perfect segue from SPACE to MATERIALITY, where the digging in the garden is a process-oriented, material-led action. In the materiality section, I will talk about the types of sensations people have while digging, unintentional vs. overt embedment of organic objects in physical practice, and moving materials between 2 and 3D. 

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I have met with Geraint Evans and a small group of students who are also giving lectures (Martin, Alex, and Xin Yue) to exchange about our progress on the content of these lectures and our presentation format. Geraint and I discussed the following references that I may bring into the garden theory section of my lecture: 

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• Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections by Professor Corinne Fowler

• Memories of the Motherland video journal by Mina Fouladi (Camberwell MA graduate)

• Wanderlust: A History of Walking by Rebecca Solnit

• Cultivating Color project by artist Sigrid Holmwood: https://sigridholmwood.co.uk/Cultivating-Colour

• Vetch Veg garden project by artist Owen Griffiths: https://www.owengriffiths.work/work/vetch-veg

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In addition to the references I may make, Geraint and I have brainstormed how to prompt the audience to engage using not only my energy as a speaker, but through prompts and props. In my research proposal, I explained that I will have 4 live cactus clippings from Southern Spain at the lecture. Two are infected with cochineal beetles, and two are not. The cacti will serve as a way to situate my discussion of plant migration and garden colonialism, as well as my transformative trip to collect objects in the Tabernas Desert and Cabo de Gata-Nijar. I will also provide pen and paper by the seats, encouraging the audience to write down notes for interactive discussion at the end of the lecture, and prompting them with a few questions throughout the lecture.