My collaboration with Sophia was prompted by an accidental encounter. A book in a box on the side of the street in London which documented the species of flora and fauna in North Wales. The extensive appendix listed the species’ names inLatin, English and Welsh, the majority of which we had never heard before. The book sparked a sense of wonderment for a practice of naming which now feels largely absent from modern day. I felt a gap in fluency of my local environment, not only in Welsh but in English too, and thought, wouldn’t it be interesting to get to know a place through meeting the plants that grow there.
Using the perimeter of the island as a quadrat, we explored what grew from the salt sprayed crags to the downy meadows. Inviting the island’s residents and visitors to share in our research, we felt, smelled, tasted, studied and listened to some of the island’s herbs in a series of workshops. Over two weeks we created a series of poems, photographs, natural ink paintings derived from the plant itself and collated our research into a new book and a short 16mm film.
