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Proposition Studios Biodiversity Fingerprint Residency
March – May 2026, Bethnal Green London
Throughout the residency I exhibited art works at the front of building and façade and ran workshops for artists and local residents. Through observation, walking and deep listening I researched the birds living on the roof and around the building and presented Look Up a spoken word poem and soundscape at the end of the residency.
Skybar – nests and feeding stations across the façade of the building were designed to explore collaboration between species living in Bethnal Green.
The Listener - installation using great fen-sedge, common reed and bulrush woven around a willow frame. Visitors were invited to stroke the reed pelts and pop their head inside to smell the marsh and hear sounds of Oyster Catchers calling on the beach. The Listener invites us to imagine non-human deliberation, shifting attention from documentation to reflection, from evidence to imagination.
Oyster Catcher Platform - a version of a platform created by Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust to protect nests from flooding during storm surges which are becoming increasingly common as sea temperatures rise.
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Look up - The urban canopy
On the top gulls, crows and magpies
Gulls - calling as they soar above the buildings, mark morning and evening as regularly as the bells of St John. Flying from dockland roosts to feeding sites in the cities rubbish tips.
Carrion Crows perceptive intelligent, perch high up on railway line structures discussing stratagem topping up their vitamin D.
A mischief of Magpies clatters and chatters, white and black with iridescent blue green flashes, bold and successful.
In the middle black birds, rock and wood pigeon feast joyously on the mulberry fruits outside the studio, singing and cooing at the start of the day.
Hopping and hiding in the undergrowth tiny hearts encased in feathers
Shrink to their size, slow down time, notice
Wren, tail upright singing at full throttle
Robin, blue tit, great tit, goldfinch and the petite rotund goldcrest, insects buzz, more magpies searching collecting, chattering, dominating air space as the squirrels chase up and down tree trunks and rustle through the London Planes.
Sounds collide as the recent migrants the lollipop parakeets dash squawking through the treetops
The dawn stirs a dull thud of traffic maintainsA flourish of song then the beginning of the human day. the first train – clickety clack clickety clack industrialisation blasts through, drowning all sounds.
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