Water Body Witness
Orchid Glade
If you and I were to go
To the water’s edge,
The first water, the still
Water, the edge of thrill and life;
If our feet sank into the soft mud
In amongst the hoof and egg and stalk;
If we squatted there,
Quiet,
Haunches and skirt,
And waited,
Would we fall or step or roll or sink
Into the water?
Would we break the surface tension,
Bend the reed?
How carefully would we enter into the
Perfect cool water
And drop down, fold down,
In absolute
Awe.
ARTIST
Flora Gathorne-Hardy & photography by Miche Fabre Lewin
MEDIA
Charcoal & black ink drawings | Limited edition photoworks | Limited edition photowork & poem
DIMENSIONS
Tryptich of drawings [dimensions] | Limited edition photoworks Ao | Photowork & poem
Water Body Witness engages with water, and our innate capacity as humans to commune and communicate with the language and life force. The work emerged through visits to Orchid Glade, an area of land that is managed by a community of Guardians under the protection of the Suffolk Flora Preservation Trust. Here, the wild flora and flora are celebrated as they gradually reclaim what was a heavily cultivated agricultural field.
Towards the centre of the land there is a body of water, where birds nest, deer drink, dragonflies feed and communities of plants entangle their roots around the moist and fluctuating pond edge. Here, Flora spontaneously entered the water and encountered its living energy through her hands - a communing exchange that was recorded by Miche and which then inspired a poem and performative drawing as part of Open Studios.
EMERGENCE OF THE WORK
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Encountering the water's edge
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Entering the water
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Sensing the life of water
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Performative drawing
