In Spring 2020, The World Wildlife Trust (WWT) London Wetland Centre announced the presentation of Wetlands Unravelled, a contemporary art programme woven throughout the lakes, ponds and grasslands of one of the London’s largest wild wetlands. Curated by Unravelled, who commission and produce site-specific projects inspired by history and place, the programme unfolded with new sculptural, installation, video and textile works by myself and nine other artists exploring the paradoxes of conservation within the wetlands environment.

Rob Campbell, Head of Experience, Engagement and Learning at Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT), said, “Wetlands Unravelled is the latest and most ambitious in a series of contemporary art commissions on WWT sites. We’re very excited to showcase, through this programme, new work from artists responding to the unique wetland habitat we manage at London Wetland Centre. We want Wetlands Unravelled to stimulate thinking and discussion around the vital role wetlands play in the environment and the fight against global climate change.”

Artistic action: Stitch-based research

I first encountered the London Wetland Centre during an Unravelled Wetlands open-day in Spring 2019. A crowd listened to our guide. I became struck by his personal experience that pointed to deeply felt emotions. The sonic movement of aeroplanes passing overhead was a repetitive metronome to the discourse and reminder of daily conflicts to a conservationist’s vision where opposite ideals co-exist.

Over the subsequent year my work explored the types of threads and stitch types to express the rich range of contrasting sounds heard in the outdoor environment, some pleasantly dulcet or mellow, others piercing and insistent overlaid with those which are riotous and shrill. The firmness and character of ground fabric reacts to the threads and plays an important role in the stability of the embroidery through the placement of a stitch – one that is crisp and clear on the surface or sinks into the grain of the fabric. The yarn used serves as a mediator in a meeting of urban sounds and ground fabric to bring into focus the complex and layered intersections between natural and artificial ecosystems. It created a new set of conditions depending on location, for example when I sat sewing cross-legged on the banks of a pond or on a bench beside a gravel path or protected in a bird hide. Gurgles, creaks, chirrups, sharp calls, distant hammering, squawks, occasional quacks, murmurs, a police car siren, a bark, rustling close by: sounds as a texture crisscross over and through the space where I was seated and merge outwards to the expanse of the sky that connects us to others far away. In this context, the regular 2-minute frequency of aircraft passing overhead looks to confront the concepts of the Anthropocene in relation to a persistent repetition of filling stitches – often obscuring the linear stitches made moments before. The sudden absence of this sound due to National Lockdown Rules compelled me to question the durability of what I hear and what to make of it when parts of an original rhythm of sound has shifted. 

Outcome: A Stitch for Every Sound

‘A Stitch for Every Sound’ is comprised of five installations situated around the London Wetland Centre created on site in the Spring of 2021. Each stitch characterises a sound heard as I sat embroidering at the spot in which the work is displayed.  Each colour and weight of thread represents a different type of sound heard.  I worked from a palette of 20 threads of varying quality and weight including wool, mohair, plastic and neon dyed synthetic threads.  I was drawn to wool and soft, muted threads to represent the people-made noises such as aircraft noise which create a dull hum in the background.  Plastic threads represent the calls of the birds and animals that sounded almost comical, like a squeaky toy.  Piercing sounds appear as pops of bright pink and flame coloured threads.  More complex sounds such as the air moving through leaves, or the sound of water mixing are created by layering and use of multi-ply thread in heavier blue/grey stitches crosshatched with brown wool and finer royal blue threads.  Further embroideries show vertical grey and turquoise stitches providing the canvas on which long strands of orange and spots of lime green are scattered. Each of the embroideries is therefore unique to the place in which it is situated and the moment in time in which it was made.

The London Wetland Centre also served as a place to engage others to become active listeners, fully immersed in the moment during an improvised action of stitchery. Part of the role of the embroiderer in this context is to filter and identify sounds, to track them, mark their rhythms and let them exist as a texture onto the cloth, and to attend, with increased sensibility, to the rumbles of life happening in front, behind, around and above us.