ONE SEED A THOUSAND DREAMS
The Artists' Woods
One Seed A Thousand Dreams – The Artists’ Woods is Natalie's vision to create wild woods for the future, returning land to nature and protecting these woodlands eternally. This project is to raise funds to buy land and to plant trees and to engage artists in conversations about our role in creating and shaping eco-social futures. The project aims to build a network of One Seed A Thousand Dreams woodlands around the UK and for these to be sites for education and creative engagement.
THE INVERTED ARK
The Inverted Ark is a participatory story that takes you on a journey into a world where the animals and the other-than-humans have had enough. They can no longer tolerate the destructive impact of human behaviour on their lives and collectively call humans to account. Natalie's story is a call to action – an invitation to consider our personal relationship to the story and how we can all play a part in changing the story’s ending.
DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP WITH AN OTHER THAN HUMAN?
Are we a part of nature, or apart from nature ?
Flora's, ‘Do You Have A Special Relationship with An Other Than Human ?’ invites you to share other people’s experiences of their Special Relationships with Other Than Humans and to reflect whether you have a relationship with nature and perhaps a Special Relationship with An Other Than Human ?
As Andrew Morton says, ‘What makes humans human ? In our relationship with nonhumans, we decide the fate of our humanity. Becoming human actually means creating a network of kindness and solidarity with nonhumans which lives outside the notion of species.’
WYCHWOOD FOREST TRUST ARTIST IN RESIDENCE
Flora has been Artist in Residence with the
www.wychwoodforesttrust.co.uk since 2017 creating a series of works including ‘Come and Lie in the Hay’ – an invitation to lie in hay, to reflect on agricultural industrialisation and the loss 97% of wildflower meadows. She also took part in a three-year collaboration with Nimmi Naidoo as the Mappists
https://themappists.wordpress.com, working on participatory events which focus on people’s relationship with the Wychwood Forest. Flora continues working with the Wychwood community looking at their connection with the natural environment. At the Wychwood Forest Fair in 2023, as a part of The Map Room, Flora asked 'What Do You Wish for the Wychwood Forest?'.
OTHER WORKS
GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS
Garden of Earthly Delights, arose from a community action during the first Extinction Rebellion uprising. The aim was to transform an unused neglected council site in Hackney into a thriving inclusive community garden built from reclaimed materials.
Natalie became involved weeks after its creation. and as a garden coordinator, has participated in the collective shaping of the garden, engaging the local community through outreach and community assemblies. The garden is a thriving, inclusive, supportive space growing edible, medicinal and wild plants and advocating for social, environmental and climate justice.
The garden has inspired her engagement through written word and performance, photography, growing food and helping shape nature and wellbeing sessions. She is currently exploring a site specific work ‘Extinction Chimes’ for the space.
CEREMONY FOR LOST TREES
Ceremony For Lost Trees is a response to the felling of trees globally. Witnessing the removal of trees in the city environment, Natalie was drawn to thinking about the lack of legal standing of trees and lack of ritual or recognition of the loss of a tree's life.
There is a deep contradiction in the ease with which trees can be felled when the vital importance of trees is recognised for planetary well-being.
Ceremony For Lost Trees creates a space to recognise the loss of life inflicted on these trees, the lack of recognition of legal rights and a voice for the trees, while also recognising the multiple efforts by groups and communities globally to speak up for and fight for the rights of trees. It is a lament for all lost trees.