Feral adj. - in a wild state, especially after escape from captivity or domestication
‘Language and imagination are our most powerful and natural tools for re-engaging with nature - culture is the interface between us and the non-human world, our species’ semi-permeable membrane.’ -- Richard Mabey
F E R A L
is a new year-long project taking place over 2021 with short films and/or outdoor performances on the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice.
This series of four performances will explore a reconnection with the land, marking these pivotal moments of the year and drawing on folklore, the act of rewilding and ecological processes. It will seek to explore the connection between our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the land, and how we might heal both, looking at the intersection of art and activism.
Humans are creatures of habit, and we have seen how ready societies have been to go back to business as usual as soon as the pandemic has given signs of easing off.
But the recurrent peaks and the recalcitrance of this crisis are making it clear that the way we live and work needs to change permanently and substantially.
-- Lisbet Rausing
is a new year-long project taking place over 2021 with short films and/or outdoor performances on the Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, Autumn Equinox and Winter Solstice.
This series of four performances will explore a reconnection with the land, marking these pivotal moments of the year and drawing on folklore, the act of rewilding and ecological processes. It will seek to explore the connection between our wellbeing and the wellbeing of the land, and how we might heal both, looking at the intersection of art and activism.
Humans are creatures of habit, and we have seen how ready societies have been to go back to business as usual as soon as the pandemic has given signs of easing off.
But the recurrent peaks and the recalcitrance of this crisis are making it clear that the way we live and work needs to change permanently and substantially.
-- Lisbet Rausing
S P R I N G - O S T A R A
Watch the short film below
Filmed on location at West Norfolk's 1500 acre Rewilding project Wild Ken Hill, this short film draws on the ecology of Spring - germination, regrowth, new life, hope - as well as folklore around this time of year that has anchored us to these natural processes throughout history. It also tracks a personal journey of
re-habilitation and recovery after injury and management of a chronic illness, during which a re-immersion in the natural world has been an endless source of solace, from foraging and walking to wild swimming and dancing in the wild.
Part of SEASON FOR CHANGE a nationwide programme of artistic and cultural events that celebrate the environment and inspire urgent climate action. #SeasonforChange @jointheseason_
During the months of lockdown many of us have experienced the myriad health benefits of engaging with nature, and has in turn highlighted the natural catastrophes we are now facing, and that change must be grass-roots, community-based, and timely.
DONATE
This film was made with no financial support, so if you enjoyed the film and are waged/financially supported, please do consider making a donation.
Donations will go towards the next phase of the project
10% will be donated to the Amazon Rainforest Conservation project
Please also visit The Dancer's Forest to read about this amazing project and to make a donation
COMPLETE A FEEDBACK FORM
This helps us develop the project and apply for funding
CREDITS
Original prose and performances by Daisy Black
Filmed & edited by Alex McAleer
Filmed on location at, with generous permission of, Wild Ken Kill
Supported by Ockham's Razor (creative mentoring)
and Out There Arts (residency space)
Music from Laura Cannell featuring Polly Wright and Kate Ellis
Original composition and voice mix by Ash Day - full song list and additional credits below
Daisy is a member of the international network Sanctuary on the Faultlines, where women dance in the wild. Visit the website to see a full list of dancers from all over the world, and details of their performances.
Daisy is on the steering group for the Dancer's Forest, a new initiative by dancer Adam Benjamin with the aim of creating tracts of community-owned rewilded land throughout the UK that also function as cultural spaces. Please visit the website to read more about and make a donation to this incredible project.
Large-scale restoration activities are beginning to make landscapes bloom across Europe and elsewhere, bringing joy, hope and solace to millions of people. Innovative environmentalists are proving that even heavily degraded natural systems can recover, and that rewilding works.
To you all, wherever you live: you are right to be worried. But don’t give up hope. We can work together to turn the tide.
-- Lisbet Rausing
TAKE ACTION
- Support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill by signing the petition and writing to your MP.
- Pledge with Wild East to rewild a portion of your own garden
- Reduce meat & dairy intake - resources on how and why here and here
- Boycott fast fashion
- Replace household products with eco-friendly options
FURTHER READING
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/with-shared-knowledge-we-could-build-a-new-world-qa-with-lisbet-rausing
https://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_flannery
https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk
Books
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Feral by George Monbiot
The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes
Losing Eden by Lucy Jones
Nature Cure by Richard Mabey
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Films
Kiss the Ground
Cowspiracy
What the Health
Fantastic Fungi
- Support the Climate and Ecological Emergency Bill by signing the petition and writing to your MP.
- Pledge with Wild East to rewild a portion of your own garden
- Reduce meat & dairy intake - resources on how and why here and here
- Boycott fast fashion
- Replace household products with eco-friendly options
FURTHER READING
https://news.mongabay.com/2021/02/with-shared-knowledge-we-could-build-a-new-world-qa-with-lisbet-rausing
https://www.ted.com/speakers/tim_flannery
https://www.rewildingbritain.org.uk
Books
Wilding by Isabella Tree
Feral by George Monbiot
The Book of Trespass by Nick Hayes
Losing Eden by Lucy Jones
Nature Cure by Richard Mabey
Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
Films
Kiss the Ground
Cowspiracy
What the Health
Fantastic Fungi
"Teach the children. We don’t matter so much, but the children do. Show them daisies and the pale hepatica. Teach them the taste of sassafras and wintergreen. The lives of the blue sailors, mallow, sunbursts, the moccasin-flowers. And the frisky ones–inkberry, lamb’s-quarters, blueberries. And the aromatic ones–rosemary, oregano. Give them peppermint to put in their pockets as they go to school. Give them the fields and the woods and the possibility of the world salvaged from the lords of profit. Stand them in the stream, head them upstream, rejoice as they learn to love this green space they live in, its sticks and leaves and then the silent, beautiful blossoms.
Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
Mary Oliver
Attention is the beginning of devotion.”
Mary Oliver
Full music and soundtrack credits for Spring -
Water's Deep Cathedral by Laura Cannell from the album The Earth and Her Crowns
One for the Rook and Help Me to Salt Help Me to Sorrow by Laura Cannell & Polly Wright from the album As The Crow Flies
Bellowing by Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis from the album February Sounds
All the Land Ablaze by Laura Cannell from the album Beneath Swooping Talons
String Tension composed by Ash Day
Short extract from ‘The Names of the Hare,' late thirteenth century poem
'The stag sprouting a suede horn,
the creature living in the corn.'
Short extract from the confession of Isobel Gowdie, executed as a witch -
'I shall go into a hare, with sorrow and sych and mieckle care.'
Short extracts from Nature Cure by Richard Mabey in the voice mix
Voices mixed by Ash Day
Voices: Charlotte Eastaugh, Lucy Enskat, Turps Sargeant, Stephanie Lamey, Nicolas Buscall and Jack McAleer
Water's Deep Cathedral by Laura Cannell from the album The Earth and Her Crowns
One for the Rook and Help Me to Salt Help Me to Sorrow by Laura Cannell & Polly Wright from the album As The Crow Flies
Bellowing by Laura Cannell & Kate Ellis from the album February Sounds
All the Land Ablaze by Laura Cannell from the album Beneath Swooping Talons
String Tension composed by Ash Day
Short extract from ‘The Names of the Hare,' late thirteenth century poem
'The stag sprouting a suede horn,
the creature living in the corn.'
Short extract from the confession of Isobel Gowdie, executed as a witch -
'I shall go into a hare, with sorrow and sych and mieckle care.'
Short extracts from Nature Cure by Richard Mabey in the voice mix
Voices mixed by Ash Day
Voices: Charlotte Eastaugh, Lucy Enskat, Turps Sargeant, Stephanie Lamey, Nicolas Buscall and Jack McAleer
S U M M E R, A U T U M N & W I N T E R
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