Walking in Pairs (2025/6) – An enquiry into the nature of creative connection and influence over geographical distance.
Walking in Pairs is a collaborative project initiated by Tamsin Grainger. Open to Walking the Land artists and others, it uses walking art to enquire into the nature of creative connection and influence over geographical distance. The artists are walking together in spirit, but apart in location. Curious about the influence one has on the other’s work, they will have created a bond through intention and common interest, and will be actively investigating the relationship, personally, and through creative output. This is embodied research into the nature of influence, looking at possible correlations and common themes that may or may not emerge despite there being geographical distance between the artists. The pairs agree the sort of walk they will take, in advance: duration, location, and perhaps media or materials to be used. Contributing artists may or may not have worked together previously.
Process
- Each artist pairing starts with an initial meeting in which the walk and its parameters are agreed. There may be a prompt and/or quote(s) shared. Written passages, images etc may be exchanged so that they are ‘in mind’ as the participants prepare/research, walk, and make/create work.
- Four questions (see below) concerning the nature and outcome of the walk and work created can be discussed at the initial meeting to ensure both parties have a shared understanding, and then kept in peripheral awareness while walking.
- The walk takes place and artistic work made.
- Later, a follow-up meeting will be useful to discuss and share experiences and work created.
- There will be a wider group meeting to compile research findings and consider the work made across the project. The prospect of a group exhibition, further funding, and any follow-up will be discussed.
How many walks will we make together apart and when?
As many as you like. At whatever time intervals suit you both.
Duration
Project start/end: August 2025 – October 2026 (or later)
Questions
- How was walking ‘together’ but geographically apart different from walking together in person?
- Was the walk and work that you made, influenced by the other who was walking at the same time?
- If there was an obvious or felt connection between you as you walked, how was this manifested?
- Did you hear or see the other in your head while walking? Did you feel that they are with you, or did you feel something else?
- If you have done more than one walk, how has the experience changed over time?
Artists Participating
Artists from Australia, Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and the US have initially paired up. They are: Tamsin Grainger with Kristina Rothstein, Richard Keating with Kel Portman, Kate McMahon-Parkes with Ian Knight, Rachel McDonnell with Sara Dudman, Susie Walker with Amy Tsilemanis, Rae Willcox with Nicolette McGuire, Jackie Bourke with Carol Maurer.
Tamsin Grainger and Kristina Rothstein :
Tamsin Grainger is a walking artist, writer, and complementary therapy practitioner /teacher who makes stitched maps, zines, film, sound walks, and takes photographs. She is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
“I had the phone recorder on most of the time so I could share the sounds of the landscape with her. I chatted away as if she was there beside me. Not knowing what she was seeing and hearing, I trusted that our connection would bring about some synchronicity.”
Kristina Rothstein is a writer and walking artist who makes zines, books, and maps in Vancouver.
“I looked at the land differently, with a focus on transmitting to Tamsin, my walking partner. Carrying her with me psychically changed my relationship to the landscape and my experience of the place. It did feel like I had a passenger.”
Richard Keating and Kel Portman :
Richard Keating has been director of one of the UK’s Community Forests, a director of ‘Vision 21’, of ‘Stroud Nature’, of ‘Stroud Woodland Co-op’ and a community facilitator. His PhD researched drawing as a constructive intervention in landscape change and community action. Walking has been a central part of his practice for twenty years. He was a co-founder of ‘Walking the Land’ and is a director of Walking the Land CIC.
“Walking towards each other now, from either end of a straight line marked on a map, manifested a deep connection across time and across the land. Each time the route I walked crossed the line, my interventions in, and prompted by the landscape, became a way of mapping that connection. The walk and my “crossing point” interventions along it unlocked many memories of previous walks with Kel. It was as if these simple actions were a key to uncovering and reading layers of laid down maps of and stored in a shared landscape. At each “crossing point” I had a sense of being in a moment which transversed a shared past and and an anticipated future as we approached each other.”
Kel Portman is an artist, independent researcher, lecturer, curator and co-founder of ‘Walking the Land’. His practice as a walking artist is informed by the environment, creating works that derive from landscape, walks, journeys and serendipity.https://artworks.eu.com/kel_portman
“A journey begins with the first step. However its starting point is often well before that. Is it first of all in the mind? That imagined process of finding a route…when a map is viewed, the ground is anticipated; the landscape with its climbs; descents; valleys; tracks; brooks and woodlands. Does this enhance or detract from the experience of reality – of walking?
Similarly, the knowledge of another, synchronised walker beginning their own walk, but through a different terrain and step by step getting ever closer…questions arise; the potential time and place of the encounter, if any; what of their experience; our shared history of time, place and landscape; what else is shared; what is unique and remains a personal experience?”
Kate McMahon-Parkes and Ian Knight :
Kate McMahon-Parkes is a multimedia artist based in Gloucestershire. Her work explores the intersectionality of nature and humankind.
Ian Knight is a researcher-artist. Ian actively seeks out creative opportunities using readily available materials from nature to create works that speak of place. Source location and provenance of available materials including wild clays, rock and other organic materials are used alongside photography to drive storytelling within Ian’s practice.
“I could visualise Kate walking along a coastal path looking out for materials from which to make a work. I was also thinking about talking to Kate about my walking experience and thoughts. However, I did not feel that Kate was with me and very much felt alone during my walk.”
Rachel McDonnell and Sara Dudman :
“Thinking about ghost trees and getting distracted by autumn leaves and various other things (acorns, apples, fungi, potential foraging material – all of which distracted Sara too)”, Rachel McDonnell, first walk, 16th September 2025, Golden Valley.
“Coprinus fungus collected from Adcombe Wood”, Sarah Dudman, October 2025.
Rachel McDonnell is a painter and walking artist based near Stroud, Gloucestershire. Her work sits in a tradition of landscape painting reflecting and contributing to social change, and is centred around woodland and trees.
“I have been surprised by synchronicities in our walks – not only shared, but explicable, distractions, such as autumn’s astounding bounty, but also coincidences such as the sound of a chainsaw during a walk when we were thinking about trees under stress.”
Sara Dudman is a contemporary Land Artist, based in The Blackdown Hills, Somerset. She works in interdisciplinary partnerships and with communities, using walks, earth pigment foraging, painting, drawing and film to unearth the stories of the land.
“As I walk together-apart with you, I will be mindful of our shared focus on considering which trees are under stress / destined to be felled / which are the ancient oaks which have stood there for centuries and everything in between. I will also keep in my mind, your walk and the canal and reference to your daughter. Enjoy the walk!” (from our first email exchange before our first pairs walk, 16th September).
Susie Walker and Amy Tsilemanis :
Susie Walker is an artist and educator, sketcher, painter, maker, collaborator, mother, Scottish island lover, and hoarder of nature.
Amy Tsilemanis is a cross-artform practitioner and producer using walking, audio, poetry, collage, events and archives. Based in regional Victoria, Australia on Wadawurrung Country.
Rae Willcox with Nicolette McGuire :
Rae Willcox is a walking artist-researcher working multimodally through participatory, more-than-human and place-based encounters that tend to practices of dis/belonging. She lives in Suffolk, UK.
Nicolette Macguire makes mixed media groups of work that connect and talk to each other. They are maps of exploring walks. She loves space, solitude, wilderness and watching the movement of water.
Jackie Bourke and Carol Maurer :
Jackie Bourke is a walking artist, writer and lecturer in urban geography. She lives in Dublin, Ireland.
Carol Maurer is a US (Delaware) based experiential artist who weaves connections among people, history, and place through walking, fibre, paper, ephemera, and research.