Walking the Land is an artists collective that has been active in and around Gloucestershire’s Stroud Valleys since 2002 and more recently has active members from wider afield. We link landscape, community and art through projects, research, exhibitions, installations, writing and shared walks with numerous artists’, other professions and wider communities.
Upcoming Events
May 16th – Marlene Creates Walk Talk and Memory Mapping workshop – see details below
May 20th – Last Tuesday Café – contact wtl@walkingtheland.org.uk for details.
Marlene Creates: Walk, Talk and Memory Mapping, 16th May. 1.15pm to 5.00pm BST
We are delighted to confirm that as a part of her programme while visiting the UK, Canadian Artist Marlene Creates will be visiting the Stroud Valleys on 16th May to walk with us and to deliver a talk and a memory mapping workshop (read below for more detail).
The day will include an hour’s walk from 1.15 PM, followed by Marlene talking about her practice and then facilitating a hands-on Memory Mapping workshop. Materials will be provided.
We expect to finish by 5PM.
For those who can afford to, we are asking for a donation of £20.00 towards the cost of this event and £10.00 from others.
Places will be limited so please confirm your place by the end of April by emailing keatree@icloud.com
Walking and Memory Mapping
Marlene Creates has used memory mapping in her work since 1986—maps drawn both by her and by others for her. Memory maps are examples of alternative maps, also called participatory maps, counter maps, living maps, deep maps, and even radical maps. Every map tells a story and alternative maps tell alternative stories.
In this presentation, Marlene will show works done in collaboration with Indigenous Inuit and Innu elders in northern Labrador, and her own elderly relatives on the island of Newfoundland. Her most recent work
centers the perceptions of about 200 school children who came for multidisciplinary guided walks in the 6- acre patch of old-growth boreal forest where she has been living and working since 2002 on the island of Newfoundland/ Ktaqmkuk.
Memory Map Drawing Workshop: Site + Memory = Place
Following the talk, Marlene will facilitate a memory map drawing workshop in which each participant will
make a layered memory map of a place that is or has been important to them. ____________
Marlene is a Canadian environmental artist living and working on the island of Newfoundland/ Ktaqmkuk. Her work has been presented in over 350 exhibitions and screenings across Canada and internationally.
She has received many awards, including a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for “Lifetime Artistic Achievement”; the Order of Newfoundland & Labrador, the province’s highest honour; and an Honorary Doctorate (D. Litt.) from Memorial University of Newfoundland.
She says, “Underlying all my work has been an interest in place—not as a geographical location but as a process that involves layers of memory, multiple narratives, ecology, language, politics, emotions, and both scientifc and vernacular knowledge.”
Marlene acknowledges that she lives and works on the island that is the unceded ancestral homeland of the Beothuk and Mi’kmaq peoples. With her work, she strives to create meaningful relationships between people and place, while honouring over 8,000 years of stewardship of the provincial territory by a succession of Indigenous people. www.marlenecreates.ca