Gathering The Commons

     
This work was specially commissioned for “Gathering the Commons” at St. Stephen’s Chapel, West Norwood Cemetery, May 2025.

Inspired by the location of the Cemetery, particularly its unique ecological features and rich biodiversity I made a collection of vessels shaped like urns or totems.  Basket is in the Roots, That’s Where it Begins (2025)  were made from dried grasses and other plants found in the area including the leaves or stems of dandelion , daffodil and kniphofia. I referenced the veiled urns carved from stone, scattered among the graves, which symbolise the boundary between life and death. The title refers to a famous teaching from the Pomo people about how the art of basketry is inextricably tied to the land, centering on the deep, unseen labor of harvesting, cultivating, and processing natural materials.

The  two installations – Between Worlds (2025) and Pioneer Taraxacum (2025) – were made using cordage from dandelions growing near the chapel. They draw on the Victorian symbolism found throughout the cemetery, as well as the concept of “thin spaces” in folklore – liminal zones between worlds. 

I considered the site as a living, breathing, regenerative space, where self-seeding wildflowers, moss-covered stones, and ancient trees had created wildlife corridors between the headstones. This overgrown quality is not decay in the pejorative sense, but compost – an active, generative state where endings become beginnings.

​Instalation view of ​Between Worlds (2025) and ​Basket is in the Roots, That’s Where it Begins (2025) 



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​​Between Worlds (2025) 




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​Basket is in the Roots, That’s Where it Begins (2025)


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Basket is in the Roots, That’s Where it Begins (2025) 

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​Pioneer Taraxacum (2025) 


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Pioneer Taraxacum (2025)