Spotlight: Living Stories, landscapes of belonging
Every landscape holds stories. In the roots of its trees, the seeds of its wildflowers and the footsteps of the people who have passed through it.
On the RWA balcony, a new artwork, Living Landscapes brings together planters and original poetry created through the participatory project, Living Stories: Landscapes of Belonging.
Developed by multidisciplinary artist MoYah and created in collaboration with community members, the artwork was initially inspired by a conversation with Helen Jacobs (Head of Learning and Engagement at the RWA) about “how we might do further work with the planters on the balcony”.
MoYah’s creative practice is collaborative. In previous RWA projects, he has facilitated gardening sessions with Planty Jane and hosted HipHop Gardens, with the Centre for Black Humanities at University of Bristol, MoYah , Ian Soloman-Kawall and Bristol-based community herbalist Maria-Fernandez Garcia.
Inspired by the way older women’s groups at the RWA described herbs and spices as conjuring up “good memories of things at home” MoYah invited community members, poets, activists and “people who can use words powerfully” to explore Bristol as a living landscape shaped by nature, migration, heritage and community.
Through workshops, planting and poetry, he invited people to think about landscape as a place where personal memory, nature and shared belonging meet. Over three weeks, participants walked, talked, planted and wrote. For the planters, the group chose herbs and flowers that people would recognise as ‘grown back home’ such as grasses, sage, chives, parsley and echinacea to attract pollinators and increase biodiversity.
In workshops, with the support of facilitators such as Bristol City Poet, Sukina Noor, they explored ideas and prompts: ‘if nature is not something outside us, but is a mirror - something of which we are a part’. Reflections captured through poetry, spoken word, positive affirmations and a blessing will be printed and displayed among the plants.
The project aims to creation connections, exploring what we leave behind; what our legacy will be. As MoYah reflects, it is also about the future: “You don’t know what will happen when someone sees that poem, it may be poem that someone needed to see that day. And that might stay with them and develop into something else”.
You can see Living Stories: Landscapes of Belonging on the RWA balcony throughout the year.
Living Landscapes was created by MoYah in colloboration with Sammy Gearing from Step by Step Gardens, Leanne Wharton from Soul Trail, Sukina Noor and the RWA.
Lead image: Alastair Brookes /KoLAB Studios