Invited by Project Coordinator Hannah McCormick, I have worked with the Youth Ecology and Art Collective at Butler Gallery since the Summer School programme in 2022. Along with artists Maura Brennan and Mollie King, we co-designed a week-long series of workshops that included building paper microscopes, learning the basics of photomicrography, printmaking and designing, nettle cordage, whittling, green woodworking and explored the themes of ritual and our responsibility to our planet.
In September 2023 I led a workshop entitled Future Humans that examined Donna Haraway’s speculations about the impact of climate change, human and more than human adaptations. Exploring how we might collectively adapt we made drawings, photocollages, and a life-sized hybrid/animal hybrid. In November, Hannah McCormick a coordinated visit to Suzanna Crampton’s regenerative farm in Bennetsbridge. An expert in soil biodiversity, Suzanna demonstrated how to collect soil samples and how to care for soil that is full of life. Based on this experience, I led a scientifically informed workshop that examined the unique microbiome of soil. Back in the Learning Center at Butler Galley, we documented the micro ecologies of soil through drawing, microscope photography, soil analysis and soil chromatography- an alternative photography technique that creates a unique portrait of soil. We have made inks and pigments with kitchen ingredients and experimented with bioplastics over the past year.
