Forests at the Edge: (Soft) Edgelands
Explore the soft edges of Horsenden Hill and Perivale with artist Becky Lyon for the Urban Tree Festival.
Join artist and London National Park City Ranger Becky Lyon for the final of three walks exploring what forest ecologies on the edges of London might have to teach us about sharing space, finding community and co-flourishing alongside each other in the city. Part of the Urban Tree Festival 2023.
Soft Edges is the third and final walk in the Forests at the Edge series and we are venturing to Horsenden Hill, a special place encapsulating London’s multi-textured ecology. As we travel from the Perivale Community Hive to the viewpoint of Horsenden Hill we’ll discuss, disrupt and fuzzy-the-edges of the words and concepts we usually associate with nature-in-the-city.
As we skirt the edges of parks, playgrounds, canals, city farms, industrial parks, veteran and ancient woodland - how do places like this redefine the ‘urban’? How does the concept of a ‘peri-urban’ ecology trouble the hard-edged binaries of ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ and offer something richer, more complex and more diverse? What role do industrial ‘edgelands’ play in our multispecies landscape? We will use creative activities to think, map and fiction possibilities and potentials…
Useful information about this event:
- This event will take place outdoors so come dressed for the weather.
- This event is suitable for people aged 16+. Under 18's must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
- No dogs except Guide Dogs please.
- This walk will require some uphill walking.
- If you have any accessibility requirements - please contact Becky in confidence and we will endeavour to accommodate
- There is access to toilets at Perivale Hive.
- Please let us know if you have any allergens or dietary requirements at least 48 hours in advance.
- If you have any questions / ponderings don't hesitate to contact me at beckyl.lyon@googlemail.com
About the series
Eco-artist and London National Park City Ranger Becky Lyon returns to the Urban Tree Festival to lead a series of artist-led walks and gatherings exploring forest ecologies at the fringes of London. Our connecting theme is edges, borders and boundaries - how are they decided, who are they serving and how do forest ecologies offer other ways of organising or thinking about shared space? How might edges be less a hard line and more a generative, fertile, sociable space for co-flourishing alongside each other in the city? Through art activities, discussion, sensory exercises and mindfulness practices we will venture into three distinctive woodland environments to uncover what these special places might have to teach us. Explore less-trodden parts of London, explore nature as a teacher and delve into pressing topics around access in creative ways!
Existence as Resistance, Sat 13 May 1pm-3.30pm, Barnwood N2 Edible Forest, Finchley
Bodies, Borders, Boundaries, Sun 14 May 2pm-4.30pm, Stanmore Country Park, Harrow
(Soft) Edgelands, Sun 21 May 1.30pm-3.30pm, Horsenden Hill, Ealing
About your host
Becky Lyon is an English-Jamaican artist working at the intersection of art, ecology and community. She’s interested in how art practice can help us re-body back into the animate, vibrant, tangly messwork of our ecology and is interested in ecology as a sourcebook for co-flourishing in times of ruin. Her work manifests in multiple forms from tactile installations to rituals, sensory artefacts and word-foolery. She is Grounder of Ground Provisions - an artist-led, schooled-by-the-forest for grown ups hosting participatory gatherings, walks, sensory seminars and reading groups for a range of audiences. She has an MA Art & Science from Central Saint Martins and an MA Art & Ecology from Goldsmiths University and is a volunteer London National Park City Ranger.
Explore the soft edges of Horsenden Hill and Perivale with artist Becky Lyon for the Urban Tree Festival.
Join artist and London National Park City Ranger Becky Lyon for the final of three walks exploring what forest ecologies on the edges of London might have to teach us about sharing space, finding community and co-flourishing alongside each other in the city. Part of the Urban Tree Festival 2023.
Soft Edges is the third and final walk in the Forests at the Edge series and we are venturing to Horsenden Hill, a special place encapsulating London’s multi-textured ecology. As we travel from the Perivale Community Hive to the viewpoint of Horsenden Hill we’ll discuss, disrupt and fuzzy-the-edges of the words and concepts we usually associate with nature-in-the-city.
As we skirt the edges of parks, playgrounds, canals, city farms, industrial parks, veteran and ancient woodland - how do places like this redefine the ‘urban’? How does the concept of a ‘peri-urban’ ecology trouble the hard-edged binaries of ‘city’ and ‘countryside’ and offer something richer, more complex and more diverse? What role do industrial ‘edgelands’ play in our multispecies landscape? We will use creative activities to think, map and fiction possibilities and potentials…
Useful information about this event:
- This event will take place outdoors so come dressed for the weather.
- This event is suitable for people aged 16+. Under 18's must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
- No dogs except Guide Dogs please.
- This walk will require some uphill walking.
- If you have any accessibility requirements - please contact Becky in confidence and we will endeavour to accommodate
- There is access to toilets at Perivale Hive.
- Please let us know if you have any allergens or dietary requirements at least 48 hours in advance.
- If you have any questions / ponderings don't hesitate to contact me at beckyl.lyon@googlemail.com
About the series
Eco-artist and London National Park City Ranger Becky Lyon returns to the Urban Tree Festival to lead a series of artist-led walks and gatherings exploring forest ecologies at the fringes of London. Our connecting theme is edges, borders and boundaries - how are they decided, who are they serving and how do forest ecologies offer other ways of organising or thinking about shared space? How might edges be less a hard line and more a generative, fertile, sociable space for co-flourishing alongside each other in the city? Through art activities, discussion, sensory exercises and mindfulness practices we will venture into three distinctive woodland environments to uncover what these special places might have to teach us. Explore less-trodden parts of London, explore nature as a teacher and delve into pressing topics around access in creative ways!
Existence as Resistance, Sat 13 May 1pm-3.30pm, Barnwood N2 Edible Forest, Finchley
Bodies, Borders, Boundaries, Sun 14 May 2pm-4.30pm, Stanmore Country Park, Harrow
(Soft) Edgelands, Sun 21 May 1.30pm-3.30pm, Horsenden Hill, Ealing
About your host
Becky Lyon is an English-Jamaican artist working at the intersection of art, ecology and community. She’s interested in how art practice can help us re-body back into the animate, vibrant, tangly messwork of our ecology and is interested in ecology as a sourcebook for co-flourishing in times of ruin. Her work manifests in multiple forms from tactile installations to rituals, sensory artefacts and word-foolery. She is Grounder of Ground Provisions - an artist-led, schooled-by-the-forest for grown ups hosting participatory gatherings, walks, sensory seminars and reading groups for a range of audiences. She has an MA Art & Science from Central Saint Martins and an MA Art & Ecology from Goldsmiths University and is a volunteer London National Park City Ranger.