#THENATUREKIND
Becky Lyon is an English x Jamaican artist and ‘artecologist’ exploring how art practice can re-body us back into the animate, vibrant, tangly messwork of our ecology. She is interested in ecology as an alternative curriculum or sourcebook for inhabiting the Earth in ways that foster more co-flourishing and care and challenge the logic of "dominion" at the sour core of multiple injustices.
Her work manifests in multiple forms from tactile installations to rituals, sensory artefacts and word-foolery. She hosts participatory gatherings of and for all kinds - from dead wood walking trails to summer-scented gatherings around the fire; touchy-feely seminars and reading groups that rip B|T|W|N THE L|AV|S.
She is a ranger for London National Park City supporting grassroots organisations and hoping to re-enchant the perception of urban ecology through creativity. An inherent discipline-smoosher, she has a MA in art & science from Central Saint Martins and is currently studying for a MA in art & ecology at Goldsmiths.
Describe the nature around you at the moment.
Bewitched by fog! Fog might just be my favourite state of the weather - the borders between bodies and boundaries are blurred, everything (myself included) appears to be saturated and bewitched by atmosphere.
How do you define being an ‘artecologist’ and how does nature impact your art?
‘Artecologist’ is a term I’m experimenting with, trying on for size, as a way of recognising that ecology is more than a scientific field of study and ‘knowledge’ about ecology is generated and grown by people of all different disciplines - scientists and geographers, yes but also nature writers, philosophers, storytellers, healers, witches, walkers, gardeners, swimmers, care-takers, dancers, artists.
The methods I use to engage with ecology - sensory mediation, practices of attention, material engagement - are all valid and potent methods of coming to know and telling stories about our ecology. Nature is my syllabus and my art is born from these encounters. Nature tells me what I’m working on next!
Is there anything you’re curious about right now?
I’m curious about ‘currents’! For my new body of research I’m oozing off the shared etymology of “curriculum” and “currents” meaning flow, course. I’m thinking about leakage, seepage, flows, fluxes, fizzes, spills, gooiness, smooshiness as strategies for transgressing boundaries, borders, capture, category.
Where do you feel most at ease?
London’s ancient woodlands are where I come back to ground. You can also usually find me in London’s woefully under-explored green and blue spaces north of the river covering Barnet, Brent, Harrow and Enfield.
What’s your top tip?
Ecology is the sourcebook. If in doubt, take a moment to tune into the season, closely observe a process, follow a bird’s song, fill your nostrils with the scent of the soil, bathe in the weather - there is deep wisdom, instruction, medicine and magic there.
Name a film, podcast or documentary that blew your mind.
Neptune Frost directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman. An electrifying (literally) science-fiction-musical where miners form an anti-colonial computer hacker collective in Burundi.
What kind of ancestor would you like to be?
A seed-sower, weaver, pollinator, composter, fermenter.
How are you feeling in your body right now? (question from #TheNatureKind interview with Sui Searle)
My tummy flora is keeping the score at the moment and they crave gentleness, quietness and time for digestion!
What question would you like to ask to the next person on TNK?
How is (or could) the darker, cooler, mulchier more spacious season provide medicine for you right now?
And could you suggest someone else or other organisations you admire that we could approach for #TheNatureKind
Susan Bickford of The Stillness Project in Maine (www.instagram.com/the_stillness_collective). A beautiful soul co-leading a project exploring spiritual relationship to place through art, film, food, words and friendship.