ecopoetics
Public Learning Workshop
2022
Working with the charity Public Learning Workshop based in Glasgow to produce
visual art for bus stop advertisements signalling their Ecopoetics programme. Ecopoetics is a year-long
programme engaging Scottish young people with nature and greenspace. The illustrations contain a resolution of knowledge
intended to equip curious passers-by with foundations for eco-action, be it knowing, growing, or concocting.
PLW’s Ecopoetics programme aims to increase access to knowledge about local ecologies and their health benefits,
inspire young people to take charge of their immune health with local plants (such as chickweed, hawthorn and sea buckthorn),
and to decentralise young people’s understanding of food preparation within the context of Glasgow’s multiculturalism.
Earth pushes up
through our footsoles
air spins us
in its thinning spheres
time flies through us
- Gerrie Fellows, Between Geology and Air
Two main illustrations were produced, the first an axonometric explaining how to make a simple bokashi composter,
and the second an angled worm’s eye view of folk harvesting a veg patch.
The worm’s-eye is composed of collaged elements including string, finger-painting, lino-print and watercolour.
These techniques imbue the scene with tactility and affect. The composition subverts the classical Scottish landscape,
which appears as miniature in the centre – the sublime is excavated with the carrots. Soil layers are populated by different organisms,
mites, fungi, worms, moles, roots to demonstrate the plurality of permaculture.
: Collaboration, discovery, unearthing and autonomy.
The other works deal with the accessibility of composting, especially when undertaken as a shared (household, yard or street) project.
It is laid out as a manual, but stylistically appeals to the curious and elaborate processes occurring in the transformation of daily waste matter.
A further sketch concept depicts objects being used for different domestic activities e.g. hoovering, laundry, cooking eggs throughout a household,
revealing the various genres of waste that can be composted.
Download the full image here.
