Zillah Bowes

****Password for video kink of my work (see section below):

1. https://vimeo.com/509738387
password: Allowed2024



My work Commons is a research project on the theme of connection to nature as part of my Future Wales Fellowship with the Arts Council of Wales and organisations including Natural Resources Wales and the National Trust. This project researches how we might articulate our internal experience of being in and of nature, our commons with nature, aiming to counter a narrative that places nature as something outside or separate from the self.

I started with a question: Can I devise a new language to describe our internal connection with nature—one that moves beyond the idea of separation? My project moves beyond visual representation towards a sensory, experiential and expressive methodology. I developed sense-based prompts/exercises to help people observe their relationship with nature in the form of exchange. Through workshops and one-to-ones, I have refined this methodology, opening space for reflection and creative response.

Sense Scores is a series of open-ended instructions, in an accessible form of poetry, to help others explore their internal relationship with nature. In them, I invite myself and participants to respond using various mediums eg text, image, mark-making, recording, movement etc to express their connection with nature in a specific place.

For the Dover Prize, I would like to continue Commons and create new a new body of work, building on this previous period of research. This will significantly help move my artistic practice forward, allowing me rare space and time to organically develop work in the best way that suits my practice, building outwards as I go along.

The project can take place wherever there is nature, including urban environments, and would work very well in Darlington and surrounding areas. My aim is to offer a bridge between self-care and ecological care. I would like to incorporate Darlington and environs in Sense Scores, creating a brand new methodology from my experiential research in this specific space and with local people. In addition, I am interested in any local language, nature landmarks or historic landmarks, with which I may work and incorporate into my project.

I would create images, write text and make marks, drawings, video and audio recordings during my resident month, from which I would create a new multimedia artwork. This would potentially be a lens-based audiovisual piece, supported by additional media such as drawing and text.