LANDING
‘What we know and understand we come to love, and what we love we will protect’ Aldo Leopold
In June 2024, We Live Here and Lancaster Arts hosted LANDING, a micro-festival of live events that explored our relationships with the natural world and what connects each of us with nature. LANDING took place at The Battery in the West End of Morecambe in Lancashire around a site with three shipping containers inviting visitors to explore the natural and built environment around them.
LANDING was created in collaboration with artists Henna Asikainen, whose work NEST involves bringing people together to construct a human sized nest, and Breakwater, comprising Taey Iohe and Youngsook Choi, who present Cockles of my Heart, an immersive, guided sound walk on Morecambe sands.
‘How the sea connects us with the whole of the world’s history.
It’s the same water that washes my feet here in Morecambe.’
Cockles of my Heart - Breakwater
Cockles of my Heart is a joyful, reflective and sensory audio experience, inspired by the sea and in remembrance of the Bay's entangled colonial and ecological traumas that will take place during LANDING from June 28 to 30. Cockles of my Heart commemorates the deaths of 23 Chinese cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay in 2004. The audience was invited to put on headphones and immerse themselves in the inspiring, powerful and moving stories of the Bay as you set off across the sands, feeling the wet sand beneath your feet, the wind in your hair and the salt on your lips as you connect with the natural world around you and some of the histories of the bay.
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Breakwater is a London-based Korean diaspora artist duo of Youngsook Choi and Taey Iohe. Their work explores social practice across subject matters around climate justice and migrants’ lived experience, excavating counter-narratives centred around spiritual knowledge and the political resonances of landscape.​
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NEST - Henna Asikainen
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, (hu)man friendship”   William Blake  
Henna Asikainen invited people from across Morecambe & Lancaster to explore feelings of belonging and home by working together to build a human sized nest on the beach near The Battery in Morecambe. Participants gathered driftwood and foliage or brought natural materials and spare fabrics to construct a huge nest, connecting us with the natural world. At the Landing site, we presented a video installation representing this shared creative act and the responses of those who made it.
Henna is a Finnish artist based in the UK. Her artwork is concerned with humans’ complex relationship with nature and its intersections with social justice, climate justice, migration and notions of belonging. ​​
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Landing Hub
For the duration of LANDING, we created a pop-up hub, a temporary exhibition space, a space to talk and spend time reflecting with others. On each day of LANDING, we invited people to share what connects them to nature. We asked our visitors to bring an object or artwork to contribute to the Museum of Nature and Us.
The LANDING programme included creative workshops and activities with artists including Quarantine, Elizabeth Clough, Zuppa and More Music as well as talks & conversations and much more. We wrote lyrics, poems and reflections on the pavement for all to see and local musicians composed a Landing Song, which was performed for the first time by everyone who had been involved at the end of LANDING.
Partners
