Forage
Finnish artist Henna Asikainen was commissioned to work with migrant communities in the West End of Newcastle, following a research residency at D6 that called for artists to consider their relationship with Europe.
Forage attempted to understand what it means to leave and to arrive, to lose and to find, to be uprooted and to make a home. It directly referenced Henna’s own experience of arriving in the North East from Finland and the rootedness she first began to feel when she had access to the countryside.
Through a series of structured ‘foraging’ walks through historic landscapes at National Trust sites of Seaton Delaval, Cherryburn and Gibside, the project introduced displaced people to the environment beyond the urban spaces they are asked to inhabit, to develop an understanding of the ecological and historical context in which they find themselves.
As our communities are formed, through the integration and celebration of people from other places, so too are our landscapes. As migrants have arrived on our shores from near and far so too have our plants. This is particularly evident in the managed landscapes of our country houses, where during the 18th and 19th centuries; our landowners foraged for exotic seeds from the colonies and beyond.
‘Through the practices of foraging we have found those things we hold in common, that eliminate distance and difference and forge us into communities. Walking and foraging together brought us to a deeper understanding of the complex, sometimes conflicting, and more often rewarding, relationship we hold with the world we inhabit and those we inhabit it with.’
Forage culminated in a temporary installation of foraged natural materials in Nun's Moor Park in the West End of Newcastle as part of Platforma Festival in October 2017. We produced an interactive digital story using our digital platform Mural, which you can view by clicking here.
Forage attempted to understand what it means to leave and to arrive, to lose and to find, to be uprooted and to make a home. It directly referenced Henna’s own experience of arriving in the North East from Finland and the rootedness she first began to feel when she had access to the countryside.
Through a series of structured ‘foraging’ walks through historic landscapes at National Trust sites of Seaton Delaval, Cherryburn and Gibside, the project introduced displaced people to the environment beyond the urban spaces they are asked to inhabit, to develop an understanding of the ecological and historical context in which they find themselves.
As our communities are formed, through the integration and celebration of people from other places, so too are our landscapes. As migrants have arrived on our shores from near and far so too have our plants. This is particularly evident in the managed landscapes of our country houses, where during the 18th and 19th centuries; our landowners foraged for exotic seeds from the colonies and beyond.
‘Through the practices of foraging we have found those things we hold in common, that eliminate distance and difference and forge us into communities. Walking and foraging together brought us to a deeper understanding of the complex, sometimes conflicting, and more often rewarding, relationship we hold with the world we inhabit and those we inhabit it with.’
Forage culminated in a temporary installation of foraged natural materials in Nun's Moor Park in the West End of Newcastle as part of Platforma Festival in October 2017. We produced an interactive digital story using our digital platform Mural, which you can view by clicking here.
