Creating costumes using plants has unique challenges, those Laurel leaves where however plentiful. There was on the whole a rejection of mask wearing from our sitters. Here we have women from The Active Looking Project, The International Women’s group at Women’s Centre Cornwall and The Penlee Family Project, 4th Trimester group.
Here are a few prints created with plant based developer from the nettles at Tehidy. Much of the r and d around sustainable photography documented the attempts to eradicate Laurel from the woodlands. Using 5×4″ positive paper gives a nice size print, instant results and the process is eminently sharable.
Category is street wear – Arts Lab is a creative wellbeing programme by and for young people in Cornwall, delivered by
HeadStart Kernow, FEAST and Arts Well, commissioned by The Cornwall Council Wellbeing and Public Health Service.
Children at Roche Community Primary School have been reinventing streetwear by repurposing their old clothes and scrap materials. They have been challenged to design and create environmentally sustainable outfits through upcycling and screen-printing. Some children are aware of the less positive impacts of the fashion industry, we shared some of the skills required to do something about it. We looked at local fashion brands and encouraged entrepreneurial mindsets. We also explored the attributes of Cornish winners in sport. At the end of the project children produced and took part in a catwalk show. The project had a focus on how we can support ourselves, one another and the planet. To do this we considered how we were feeling at the beginning and end of each session using the 5 ways of wellbeing. These are 5 ways to live a happy and healthy life, observe, connect, be active, learn and give. Thank you to Roche CP School, we had a lot of fun collaborating with you. Ultimately, we aimed to give children the confidence to create sustainably and support positive change in their lifetime.’
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.
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
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.