A Boggy…in the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens

To conclude the CO2RE UKRI-funded Greenhouse Gas Removal project, all seven artists were invited to install their commissioned work at the University of Bristol Botanical Gardens. The gardens are a beautiful, tranquil oasis, a living museum, curated with love, knowledge and care by Nick Wray and Andy Winfield.

My work in the garden was a gesture, an extract, a moment in the timeline of the larger, ongoing When Peat Speaks project. It was comprised of a collaborative performance, A Boggy Gassy Bubbly Quartet https://www.mirandawhall.space/a-boggy-gassy-bubbly-quartet/, and a series of solo performances. Between the performances, the work existed in the volume, weight, and white presence of three bubbles: one drawn on, and two left blank. It lived in the drawing: a migration of tiny, handmade data points; in the shadows of the branches moving across the surface; in the white, round reflections refracted in the pool; and in the temporary community of insects that landed to traverse the giant, slippery surface. It was found in the synthesis of these ephemeral, alien bodies within the garden, and in the conversations, exchanges, and learning that happened amidst them.

The bubbles were…

Shadow Catchers

Reflectors

Mirrors

A Community

Landmarkers

A site for exchange

Teachers

Performers