Articulation will be sharing regular updates from our members to shine a spotlight on the amazing work emerging from our sector. Today, we’re featuring Hamshya Rajkumar, who recently completed a weeklong Seedbed residency with 101 Outdoor Arts.
In March, I participated in a weeklong Seedbed residency at Greenham Common by 101 Outdoor Arts. I am fascinated by post-industrial landscapes after exploring Ravenscraig for the past few years. Therefore, I was excited to develop my practice especially with support from an arts organisation which was 10-minute walk away from a site I was exploring. It felt like an ideal opportunity.
Initially, I was drawn to the unique combination of ground nesting birds found at Greenham Common, borne from the meeting of acid and alkaline grasslands. I proposed to explore human movement that is sensitive to the ground nesting birds, which could potentially lead to a form of co-existence. I wanted to roam barefoot, stamping to draw energy from ground. However, during the March residency, changes unfolded.
As someone who no longer practises Bharatanatyam, I feel that I’m losing the connection to my fingertips. When I am barefoot holding in mudra or hastas; I touch something which I can’t put a word to. I want to resurrect this practice to be rooted in an ecology that feels more local to me as opposed to the inherited landscape of the sub-Indian continent. When I was walking around Greenham Common, I found groves of gorse I could disappear into. I collected gorse petals into a tiny envelope I made to seep into hot water every evening to rest into my body. I would rise in the morning to watch and listen to the birds. Each evening was marked by the calls of the jackdaws sitting in a perfect line on top of the missile chambers scheduled as ancient monuments fenced off from the public……
I witnessed a plethora of dog walkers at Greenham Common. Often let loose to roam, disturbing the birds that dwell on the ground. If I never knew about the sensitivity about such bird life, I would do the same. I learned that some species of birds have declined, and some no longer visit due to the overwhelming presence of dogs.
The designer within me was triggered, and I started to wonder how we create and design for wildlife, humans and out animal companions. I started to wonder about what can art and dance truly give to Greenham Common and its complex socio-political history. I maybe be drawn to birds, but how can a work also recognise the Greenham women who paved the way for Nature and Common Land? I started to wonder how I could weave elements of design, sculpture and dance together into a work. I started to see my practice moving into how can land art become a form of habitat for wildlife and how can conservation practices become an embodied ritual which honours complexity.
About Hamsyha
Hamshya Rajkumar is an inter-disciplinary artus who navigates through embodied movement, intention and ritual. By situating the body outside the constraints of binary structures, they explore our human place in a world where ‘nature’ is separate, dominated and objectified.
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