Photo: Huia Takau
About
I am an artist, landscape architect and creative producer based in Scotland. My work aims to create and support meaningful interaction between people, the environment and the more-the-human world. I am interested in the relationship between landscape cycles, life cycles and making processes, and how the act of making can help us access different forms of knowledge and understanding. My practice is often site specific and is necessarily multi-disciplinary, using drawing, making and movement to create objects, landscapes, workshops and performances.
I am currently artist in residence with The Maltings and Newcastle University (Centre for the Rural Economy, Institute for Creative Arts Practice, Population Health Sciences Institute) where I am undertaking research into wellbeing in rural communities by exploring the relationship between the human and landscape body. In 2020 I developed Connecting Threads with artist and heritage consultant Rachel Hunter, a five-year cultural programme exploring the habitats, ecology and communities of the River Tweed at the catchment scale. You can find out more about this project and the current team here.
I teach Landscape Architecture at Edinburgh College of Art and am a collaborator on the design studio, Within the Folds, situated in Berwick-upon-Tweed and led by Anaïs Chanon. This year I am training to become a qualified Mountain Leader, to enable me lead and facilitate artist-led research and practice in mountain environments.
Proud to be a member of Neuk Collective.
Selected Projects
Rural Wellbeing Research Residency | The Matings and Newcastle University, 2024
Connecting Threads | River Tweed Catchment, Scottish Borders, 2020-2024
Lead Artist for The Rock & Roll Field | Maple Cross Primary School, Hertfordshire, 2019-2021
Participating artist for We Will Eat Your Bones | Fieldwork Summer School, Hospitalfield, 2021
Collaborating artist for A Fair Land | Grizedale Arts at the Irish Museum of Modern Art, 2016
Collaborating artist for The Village Table | Grizedale Arts, Coniston, 2015
Selected Roles
Landscape Designer | erz, Glasgow, 2018 - 2020
Landscape Assistant | Roundfield, Frome, 2017
Artist Assistant | Linda Brothwell Studio, Bristol, 2017
Art Programme Assistant | Lower Hewood Farm, Dorset, 2015 - 2016
Project Assistant | Claire Cumberlidge & Co. London, 2014 - 2016
Teaching
Within the Folds: Berwick-upon-Tweed | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023 & 2024
Academic Portfolio | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023 & 2024
Quiet Places: Vatnajökull Glacier, Iceland | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
Terrain & Ecologies: River Esk Catchment | MLA Landscape Architecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2022
Visiting Tutor | Foundation Diploma in Art and Design, Leeds College of Art, 2015
Talks and Lectures
Landscape Lecture Series: Alumni Lecture, Edinburgh College of Art, 2024
Botanical Stories of the Tweed, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
Connecting Threads: An Introduction, Edinburgh College of Art, 2023
Theatres of Nature, Talla Hartfell Wild Land Network, 2022
Alumni Lecture, Leeds College of Art, 2015
Awards
Visual Artist and Craft Maker Award | Creative Scotland, 2022
Work in Progress Mentoring | V&A Dundee, 2022
School's Prize | Rosa Barba International Landscape Biennial, 2018
Portfolio Prize | Landscape Institute Scotland, 2018
Andrew Grant Postgraduate Scholarship | Edinburgh College of Art, 2017
Porthleven Prize | Bath School of Art and Design, 2013
Artist Book Collection Acquisition | Leeds College of Art, 2010
Education
Master of Landscape Architecture | Edinburgh College of Art, 2016 - 2018
BA(Hons) Idea, Material, Object | Bath School of Art and Design, 2010 - 2014
Foundation Diploma in Art and Design | Leeds College of Art, 2009 - 2010