Walking in the Peak district

This term I have been focusing on walking and the question of : how do we understand and form a relationship with nature while walking?

A father and Son admiring the view from Mam Tor.

This question has taken me on many new adventures, mainly to the Peak District national park. Here I’ve been hiking various different walks, the first at Mam Tor where I followed the trail up from the road for a 2 hour walk.

Along the way I recorded audio of the entire walk on my phone, capturing footsteps, whistling, wind, people, the sounds of plants blowing in the wind, my own clothing and voices of other hikers. The prospect of showing a walk through mediums that arent purely photography to provide an experience that pulls at more than just the eyes; for example, sound and touch really interest me. So, on this walk I collected audio and objects, all of which were rocks from different parts of the walk. What fascinates me most about rocks and stones is the massive history that they hold. It may seem mundane but to me they paint a picture of the land and it’s history. Mam tor itself was once a Celtic fortress 3,000 years ago and the connotations that gives these organic objects, to me is so important and fascinating.

So, I thought these rocks back and began to experiment with them, casting them in silicon (which didnt work as I planned) at first, then moving on to using Alginate to cast the rocks in stacks, turning them into more than what they already were. They paint more of a story together and I also loved how organic the image it made was, these stacks of rocks remind me of the Tors I climbed in Dartmoor.From here my project has stemmed to exploring new places in the peak district. Last week I went to Castleton where I walked around the village and up to the Blue John mines

Similarly to my walk at Mam Tor, I collected many objects along the way, most of which ended up being Flourite crystals I found at the mine! I love how different natural objects can be in different places, it’s interesting too how much the geography of a place can change – Mam Tor and the mines are only a few minutes away by car however where I found mudstone, sandstone and other sedimentary rocks at the Tor, I found crystal at the Mines :

Besides just collecting interesting objects on my walk a sort of walking archive, I took it a step further and walked with Calico wrapped to my feet; which made for some great looking makeshift medieval shoes but a very slippery hike! And walked from Castleton high street up into the hills behind the mines to create two paintings of where my feet had taken me. The fabric picked up all kinds of materials from mud to grass to gravel and even a bit it sheep sh*t.

This by far is my proudest art piece for this project, I love how organic and natural the outcome was and how interesting the fabric is now that its dried and hardened. All the textures and colours I find amazing. It’s got me thinking about the future of my work too and if I can somehow continue with making me own natural pigments for my work and harnessing the outdoors in a way so that other people can see a journey for themselves.

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