Spirit of the Forest.

Working together, a collaboration in the woods.

Last week has been an exciting time for photographing artwork! I recently collaborated with a good friend from University. We’ve been wanting to work together forever! And finally, being back at university and in the studios has allowed us to get together and experiment together with our artwork. What a fun experience it was! Last week Krystal Willcock and I took our work out into the woods. Krystal’s masks and my folk robes:

Mask and robes in the woods.

“Several of my masks started out as a popes hat. I wanted to warp a symbol of religion by slathering it in gold while simultaneously returning it to a folkish state akin to the costumes worn by the many folk religions and cultures that were destroyed by larger more commercial religions like Christianity and catholism. Changing it back into a folkish state that Christianity and catholism would have probably found “barbaric” and “sinful.” Krystal – on masks.

Photographs of the masks pre-coming back to university.

“My practice is based around the explorations of self identity and how we fit into the world around us.”

My own work has been fuelled by notions of reclamation, queer identity, queer movement, bodily autonomy and iconography. This garment in particular is similar to Krystal’s in the ways that it is subversive as as well as a celebration of subculture. With a combination of my queer family’s hair, hand stitching, maps and organic material, bringing it back out into the nature that shaped it in such a way has been a powerful experience. Bringing Queerness back into the outdoors, back into nature and remembering how it has the ability to nurture our souls just as much as a club would.

Photos from earlier this term.

This folk “costume” has an emphasis on how queer bodies move through nature. Printed with maps of walks ive done within Greater Manchester. I’m very interested in the idea of “Entities” and the idea of Nature + the queer Experience as Hyperobjects. As well as this, how my own queer journey has been affected by growing up in a rural environment.

There is a element of ritual in both our work, whether it be : walking, celebration, parade, folklore, dressing up; it links our work perfectly and watching these pieces of art come to life when combined has been an eye opener into what it’s like to take my work back into nature and work together with another l

Pictures taken at Fletcher Moss Park

Thank you for reading! Currently I am working with a group at University, our handle on instragam is @culture.soup the 6 of us all work with subcultures and the human condition. Krystal’s instagram handle is @sovietsherbet (links below!) Hopefully we will be producing an accessible zine around the middle/end of April.

Wishing you all a lovely week ♡

~Kai

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