Welcome to the LUNZ Hub Creative Collaborative Placement artist in Wales: Jacqui Symons. Jacqui will begin her enquiry in conversation with a team from the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Bangor.
Read on for more about Jacqui Symons and the placement focus.
Jacqui Symons
“I am drawn to the ways in which land, rural spaces and nature can be experienced and can be beneficial to us, both as part of the natural world, as managers of the land and as visitors to it.
The CCP project has a real resonance with my artistic practice and I’m excited to get started; to develop a deeper connection to the Welsh landscape and a greater understanding of how land use can impact net zero.“
Jacqui Symons is an artist printmaker who responds to the environment and our natural world, with a focus on detail and intimacy. Jacqui’s work explores concerns about climate change, the loss of nature and biodiversity, attempting to balance an appreciation for Earth’s beauty with a more serious message of irreversible damage. Jacqui’s work concentrates on asking audiences to notice natural miracles, to appreciate the often unseen or small spectacle and rediscover the wonder of nature.
Time spent working on a piece is very important to Jacqui, both in the meaning of the final piece and as a personal process; often involving laborious and time-consuming methods. This is seen in her work, producing her own art materials from the natural world – growing plants, processing them into pigments, grinding and mulling them into ink, before even starting a print, adds meaning and further connection.
Find out more through Jacqui Symons’ website.
Wales Focus: Patchwork – Connecting the small scale to the bigger national ambition
Many farmers and land managers are making changes with demonstrable benefits to biodiversity, soil function, carbon sequestration and business success. One of the challenges in Wales (and the other UK nations) is how to replicate or scale up change.
Jacqui’s enquiry into this issue begins in meetings with specialists at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Bangor. CEH is a leading research centre, with specialists across the environmental sciences.
One of the key programmes at CEH is ERAMMP – the Environmental and Rural Affairs Modelling and Monitoring Programme – which is developing insights into sustainable landscape management in Wales. Evidence from ERAMMP is used by Welsh Government, who need robust information to advance policies for social, economic and environmental resilience. It is a complex picture, however, with a core challenge that invites an artist’s perspective, drawing on existing research and stories: how might initiatives and landscapes be better connected, to create national transformation?
Jacqui will be liasing with CEH and meeting people directly involved in land use as she considers this question, learning more about what’s happening in Wales and opportunities for scaling up change – or replicating and scaling out. She’ll be sharing insights as she goes along.
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