by Ruth Purdy | Apr 1, 2025 | blog
Saturday 14th June is a day to celebrate the changes in the seasons and our right to create, connect, protest and live well.
Woodlands are places of refuge for dissenters, free speech flourishes in spaces outside the control of formal institutions. While nature witnesses every step we take, alternative underground movements have used woodland to discuss strategies for political change. A walk through the woods formulates my ideas quickly and serves others well as a space for expressing ideas. We will invite local pressure groups to come together, share their vision for the future and inspire us with powerful words from the past that reflect their mission. This might be a poem, a speech, lyrics from a song or any words of hope and justice that shape their cause. Bring a banner and stake your claim to the soil.
Trade and migration with the global majority has influenced Cornish music over the centuries. At a Cornish shout you will often hear spirituals, pubs around the county filled with voices singing reinterpretations of work songs that gave hope to people surviving enslavement. Sharing stories about hardship and resilience through song allows us to connect and explore values of resilience and freedom around the world, bringing us closer together.
At this birth of kernowfuturism we will make a hullabaloo, preserving heritage across musical genres. This project was inspired by the work of Le Sony’r Ra or Sun Ra, an American composer and band leader. His music connected the black diaspora with their African ancestry. We will employ Cornish folk musicians to play for us and premiere a reinterpretation of the avant-garde jazz piece ‘Space is the place’ on traditional Cornish instruments.
by Ruth Purdy | Mar 1, 2025 | blog
As a socially engaged photographer, I attempt to engage ethically with people, this project is an attempt to extend my ethical approach to nature by using sustainable photographic materials and processes.
Practically, I have noticed that stepping in front of a camera in disguise is easier, we become more confident. Giving people the opportunity to make and wear a mask is cathartic, a disguise can make us brave and strong, able to face anything. Since moving to Cornwall in 2010 I have been more able act and move differently too.
I set up Make it Better (mitber) CIC in 2017, supporting people to live well through the arts. https://mitber.com/the-team/ Most of this time is spent running the Active Looking Project (ALP), which uses looking to create change.
The ALP is funded by The National Lottery and focuses on fun and creative lens based ‘looking’ activities which we deliver around The Maskala project runs from April for three months, during this time we will use natural materials found at Tehidy to construct costumes and masks.
This is inspired by a recent youth movement in the USA, which in turn was inspired by the C19 beginnings of the ongoing movement for emancipation.‘eyes open, cape on’ #joy is coming. We will use cameras including pinholes, to create portraits of one another. Nature will provide us with the chemistry to develop film and print using organic
by Ruth Purdy | Jan 9, 2025 | blog
A project about disguise protest and the seasons
Disguise and camouflage are used by protesters as tools for resistance, both practical and creative, making and wearing a mask helps us to act and move differently, to create change.
A mask can protect an individual or symbolise a message, challenging the systems of power and control. Our connection to the natural world, reminds us of our right to create, connect, and live well with our environment. Locally and globally around our world, nature, with its regulated pace, ability to heal and renew is inspiring.
Cornwall’s cultural heritage is rooted in traditions of costume and mask-wearing during its seasonal festivals. The turning of the seasons here, is a reminder of Cornwall’s autonomy and independence, a demonstration of its distinct identity.
by Ruth Purdy | Dec 12, 2024 | blog
My first test is with nettles, thin to say the very least. I’m also hand processing for the first time….
by Ruth Purdy | Aug 18, 2024 | blog
I’d never been to Lisbon before, loads of galleries, saw so many fantastic and interesting pieces of art and artifacts. Scores of dada stuff that i had never seen in real life before at the Museum of Contemporary Art but loads of highlights, also great soap and hat shops. Sustainable darkroom training was fun, but the heat did overwhelm me by the end, anyhow got to have my first go with plant chemistry.
