The Dover Prize bursary will support the research, production and delivery of a new artwork exploring the distinct ecology, folklore and thematic depth of Darlington’s “Hell’s Kettles”.
Hell’s Kettles are small ponds located to the south of Darlington which have been places of intrigue for centuries. The larger kettle is fed by surface water; whilst the smaller kettle is nourished by subterranean springs, sustains a biodiverse ecosystem and is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).
Hell’s Kettles are also sites of superstition. Local legend tells that the kettles are bottomless pools of water which swallow up the souls of wrongdoers. Moreover, Lewis Caroll is rumoured to have been inspired by Hell’s Kettles for Alice In Wonderland’s “Rabbit Hole”.
Through these mythological and ecological complexities, I will adopt Hell’s Kettles as a framing device to deliver an installation and audio-visual project considering the kettles and the concept of “the rabbit hole” in relation to contemporary Darlington.
The artwork will consider:
How do legends surrounding Hell’s kettles (regarding “the rabbit hole” and souls trapped in a depthless void) reflect modern concerns of environmental despoliation and online connection/disinformation?
Instead of ‘going down the rabbit hole’, what happens when we listen to local communities and non-human voices?
The project will combine sensorial moving-image, textured sound design, oral histories, community engagement and British Sign Language transcription.
On two screens in the shape of Hell’s Kettles, we will see an audio-visual exploration of the ecological value and folkloric potency of the kettles. The second screen will project a BSL interpretation of the videowork.
The screens will be created using biomaterials inspired by the kettles’ unique ecosystems. Two sheets representing the surface of the ponds will be made using algal biomaterial in reference to Croft Kettle’s freshwater algae. The screens will be connected through sedge thatching (inspired by the saw-sedge found nowhere else in Durham) and glued together with gypsum (referencing the gypsum composite of the ponds).
Ultimately, I would relish the opportunity to envisage this aesthetically innovative, thematically resonant and locally engaged artwork for The Dover Prize.
I wish to intimately collaborate with Darlington residents and locations during the research and production of this project.
To discover more about Hell’s Kettles’ environmental value and mythological merit, I will engage with Darlington & Teesdale Naturalists’ Field Club, botanist Falgunee Sarker and local historians in addition to conducting film and sound recordings on location.
In exploring the theme of “going down the rabbit hole” in contemporary society, I will speak with Darlington MP Lola McEvoy and local secondary school children about social media consumption and tackling online disinformation.
As this artwork will include densely layered soundscapes (for example, hydrophone recordings of Hell’s kettles, birdsong and oral histories), I strive to make the artwork inclusive for d/Deaf and hard of hearing audiences. As such, I will work with the Newton Aycliffe charity Deaf Empowering Network to transcribe the full moving-image piece through British Sign Language, making the project accessible at point of entry whilst enhancing the exhibition’s core theme of listening to other perspectives to not fall down the rabbit hole.
Finally, as a musician I will compose a short choral piece for the installation’s soundtrack, and collaborate with the Darlington Choral Society for the recording.
I am an audio-visual artist, musician and environmental researcher from UK. Through soundscape, moving image and installation, my practice explores themes of ecological awareness, attentive listening and acoustic imagination. My collaborations with environmental activists, acoustic ecologists, disability rights campaigners and poets envisage attuned futures with community, sustainability and multi-species interconnection at their core. My moving image and sound art works have been exhibited at The Barbican Centre, Asia Culture Centre, Aesthetica Short Film Festival, Busan International Short Film, Environmental Film Festival in the Nation’s Capital and Changing Climate, Changing Lives Bangkok. My speculative soundscape Earth Is All Melody (2023) was created for the “Futures of Listening” exhibition at Asia Culture Center, South Korea. Earth Is All Melody weaves nature field recordings and audio interviews into a speculative soundscape of an ecological utopia. Drawing on collaborations with environmental activists, disability rights campaigners, artists, science fiction writers and urban planners, this sonically envisioned future celebrates sustainability, community and multi-species interconnection. The soundscape is augmented by a Korean Sign Language interpretation of the soundscape (the first time KSL has been used to transcribe a soundscape project), encouraging the audience to attune themselves to diverse perspectives, languages and voices needed in a more compassionate society. My award-winning non-fiction short Listen Closely (2023) celebrates acoustic conservation and sonic biodiversity in Taiwan. It was created in collaboration with leading environmental scientists, and featured at Flatpack Festival and Cambodia International Film Festival. As an electronic musician, my work has been championed by BBC Radio 1, NTS, 6 Music and Spotify. Releasing on the Japanese label Flau, my music explores themes of nature and memory through live instrumentation, samples and pastoral field recordings. My debut record was declared one of “The Best Spring Albums of All Time” by music imprint A Closer Listen. As an PhD researcher, my focus is on riverine ecologies and moving image practice. In 2022 I was awarded a CHASE Research Scholarship at SOAS, investigating ecological, spiritual and folkloric representations of riverscapes in global moving image projects.
My PhD explores representations of riverine environments in moving image and sound. This interdisciplinary research project integrates concepts from hydrology, geology, film studies, sound studies, spirituality, folklore and traditional environmental knowledge, and has provided both aesthetic inspiration and theoretical grounding for my creative endeavours (including The Dover Prize). Although is a traditional postgraduate course with a written thesis outcome and not a visual arts degree, it has been additive to my practice and worth citing in this section.
In 2023, I was fortunate to receive the ‘Taiwan Pitch’ film grant for my project Listen Closely (用心聽). Listen Closely is a poetic, ecologically conscious non-fiction short celebrating the biodiverse soundscapes and more-than-human voices of Taiwan. The project germinated through transdisciplinary research with the Soundscape Association of Taiwan and the Eco-Acoustics and Spatial Ecology [EASE] lab at the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. Listen Closely premiered at DCEFF, the world’s biggest environmental film festival, before screening at film festivals and art showcases worldwide.
In 2022 I received the GREEN IMAGE award for my moving image work Swanscombe Cyclone. The project is a contemplative, ecocentric portrayal of Swanscombe Peninsula: a biodiverse wetland and the proposed construction site for Europe’s largest theme park. Created in collaboration with environmental campaigners from India, Canada, South Korea and Cyprus, this experimental documentary/fiction hybrid decentralises human protagonists in favour of ecological perspectives, future warnings and local folk tales.
Finally, I prized at The Engine Room International Sound Art Award 2018, and I’ve been recently shortlisted for both the Ivan Juritz Prize 2025 and the CICI K-Sustainability Award (with both prize ceremonies held later this year).
Across my moving image, installation and music projects, I have been fortunate to be featured in E-Flux, BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, The Wire, The Line of Best Fit, NTS and Clash Magazine. I have been profiled and reviewed by curator and art historian Sooyoung Leam, and featured in the Korean national newspaper Kyunghyang Shinmun by culture critic Shim Wanseon.
As previously referenced, I was a 2023 artist-in-residence at Asia Culture Center in Gwangju, South Korea. Artists and creators were invited to the ACC to explore the theme “Futures of Listening”, which considered the cultural and geographic relationships of sound, listening and voice, and investigated the future of sound and space in urban environments. Over the six month residency, I participated in workshops with leading sound researchers, produced a final exhibition project (Earth Is All Melody), gave a keynote on my findings at the Korea Popular Narrative Conference at Ewha University, and produced an interactive audio-visual performance called Soma’s Garden with media artist Inhwa Yeom for the Art & Creative Technology Festival 2023.
I found the self-driven yet supportive framework of the residency to be immensely valuable to developing my research intensive and locally engaged practice. I fully immersed myself in the cultural and environmental specificity of the host city Gwangju, and felt privileged to collaborate and exchange perspectives with local community groups and stakeholders.
Analogously, the timeline and structure of The Dover Prize is highly appealing to me, and suits my locally engaged, transdisciplinary approach to compassionate, inclusive art production.
Address: Shorehill Farm, Shorehill Lane, Otford, Kent, TN15 6XL, GB
Local Authority: Kent County Council
