Our Forbidden Land / Our Restricted Wild

This project was born out of my passion for caring for the earth and living reciprocally with nature, and followed on from 'Reconnecting with Nature'. I endeavoured to look at the reasons why humans are so disconnected from nature, particularly in the Western world. The existence of wild spaces and natural ecosystems, and the ability for us to access them is so important for the future, as a deeper connection between humans and ‘the wild’ leads to higher empowerment to care for the land and therefore our planet. However, the public are alienated and excluded from our ‘common’ land which creates and intensifies the disconnect between people and nature. So much land in England has been privatised and therefore access to land by the public is restricted, as shown through commonly seen ‘private’ and ‘CCTV keep out’ signs, fences, barbed wire, walls, and the existence of the public footpath. Shockingly, we have right to roam on only 8% of land in England, which does not allow camping and activities other than walking through these areas. 

During this project I developed a love for hairpin crochet and explored this through differing yarn thicknesses, hairpin tool sizes and stitches, and combined it with machine knitting and hand weaving processes. I exclusively worked using undyed and white natural fibres that have a lower impact on the natural world in their formation and would be able to be returned to the earth at the end of their life. The yarns I used included: natural raffia, hemp, jute, organic and deadstock 100% cotton and linen.