On Our Doorsteps - Hull
Marking the culmination of On Our Doorsteps, a three-day programme of installations, performances and discussions explored the relationships between our urban communities and the green spaces in and around our cities. Tiitu Takalo, Henna Asikainen, Zakiya Mackenzie and Breakwater worked with local people to create the new artworks that were presented in Hull’s city centre and in landscapes around the city. The project is a collaboration between We Live Here, Freedom Festival, Welcome to English, the National Initiative for Creative Education (NICE), the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust, Rewilding Youth and academics from the University of Hull.
Nest: Participatory Programme & Video Installation
Henna Asikainen
Henna Asikainen presented NEST, a video installation exploring what it means to feel at home in a landscape and how nature can bring a sense of connection and belonging. Henna spent time walking and talking with people who have migrated to Hull from all around the world, reflecting on landscapes of their past and their feelings for the new landscapes that surround them now. Together they built a new nest, a symbol of shared belonging and connection to nature, presenting a video installation representing this action in the city centre.
Encounters - Tiitu Takalo
Multi-award-winning Finnish comics artist, Tiitu Takalo, explored the hidden green spaces in and around Hull with Matt Worden and Africa Gomez from University of Hull, and Charlotte Dean from Rewilding Youth. She created three new graphic narratives capturing their conversations and their encounters with nature. The billboards were presented in the centre of Hull as part of Freedom Festival before finding a permanent home at East Hull Community Farm, the home of Rewilding Youth.
Walk the Spurn - Breakwater
London-based Korean diaspora artists duo, Breakwater of Youngsook Choi and Taey Iohe explore the lived experiences of migrants, neo/colonialism and climate justice. They are interested in alternative narratives and ways of knowing nature. For On Our Doorsteps, the duo created a unique experience for people who have migrated to Hull. The experience combines walking and conversations on Spurn Point. Looking at the history and wildlife of Spurn, the instructed participation asks how war, loss, migration and restoration have been inflicted on the resilient and dynamic landscape of the Humber Estuary.
How do the birds know Spring? - Zakiya Mackenzie
Zakiya Mackenzie visited Noddle Hill Nature Reserve in Bransholme and North Cave Wetlands with participants from NICE and Welcome To English. Together they walked, talked and wrote together, reflecting on the migration of birds and humans, and the affinity that both have with our changing landscapes and the rhythms of nature. In the billboards presented in the centre of Hull, birds-eye views of the landscapes they explored are overlaid with their poetic reflections and writing.
Symposium
We Live Here is interested in how arts practice can drive conversations between different communities, places and perspectives about the environmental challenges that face our planet and all of us who live on it. As the culmination of On Our Doorsteps, we brought together artists and arts organisations, ecologists, conservationists, academics, activists and community members who have been involved in the project in Hull, Morecambe and Norwich.
We spent 3 days together, visiting the installations created through the project, visiting urban and peri-urban green spaces and sharing our reflections on the project. We discussed key questions relating to how the arts might work more effectively to address environmental issues and to increase the accessibility of experiences of the natural world for all. If you are interested in the findings of these discussions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Partners
