SPARK #39: A Field Hospital for Eco-Anxiety

After a break for August, our September SPARK session is a visit to the installation A Field Hospital for Eco-Anxiety at Dunham Massey. Dunham Massey is very kindly making ten free tickets available for SPARK members who aren't members of the National Trust – please indicate when booking whether you’d like a free ticket or whether you’re a National Trust member.

Please meet at the Visitor Centre at 10:50, as you will need to enter as a group.

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You care for nature. Nature cares for you.

Not here to be liked, the design studio co-run by SPARK artist Liam Geary Baulch, and The Edible Bus Stop have transformed the Orangery at Dunham Massey into a space for recovery and resistance. A place for you to tune into nature through this biophilic art installation.

Nature is being lost at an alarming rate and the climate crisis is increasingly causing unpredictable weather. These crises are impacting the plants we love, where we can live and grow food, and our mental health.

We call challenging emotions about environmental destruction eco-anxiety. Labelling them in this way can make it sound like an illness, but recognising the reality of the crises is a natural and healthy response.

Inside the Field Hospital for Eco-Anxiety you will find many different suggestions for how you can connect with nature and build resilience. Everyone is different, and the installation is designed to help you find a balance that works for you.

“Finding ways to cope with eco-anxiety through action, research and reflection is one of the reasons we started Not here to be liked, and we used this commission to share some of the tools, methods and resources that we have found helpful.”

Drawing from illustrations from The Anatomy of Plants by Nehemiah Grew, held in Dunham Massey’s archive, Not here to be liked designed banners to contextualise eco-anxiety through the lens of climate and ecological breakdown, and provided relief via the plant installation conceived by The Edible Bus Stop. The installation includes activity sheets (that double up as posters) for visitors to take home and help reflect on their relationship to nature, and find ways to take individual action that matters.

A soundscape, by @gardeninternal takes as its starting point the biosonified houseplants in the space, transforming the plant’s signals from leaf to root into music featuring solfeggio frequencies often used in sound therapy, meditation, and holistic healing practices. The installation also includes banners fabricated by SPARK artist Chris Alton from designs by Not here to be liked.

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Not here to be liked is a design and strategy studio for change in a world in crises. As a strategy and design studio they aim to help movements and organisations shift narratives and move hearts. They run on a “pay what you should” basis; working for organisations that can afford to cover their full costs enables them to give a third of their time to grassroots campaigns for reduced rates or pro bono. Clients include organisations such as Extinction Rebellion, Book Works, Green New Deal Rising and Staffordshire Wildlife Trust. From campaigns to rewild Britain to art installations and books, they have brought their expertise in researching and communicating environmental issues and our professional design skills to this project.
https://www.notheretobeliked.studio/

The Edible Bus Stop® is an award-winning spatial design studio specialising in accessible and interactive green spaces, creating multi-sensory biophilic experiences and installations. Adopting a multidisciplinary and collaborative approach, the studio transforms exterior or interior environments for permanent or temporary settings in the public realm. Their diverse projects, from pocket parks in London to festival experiences, embrace biodiversity and address social and environmental challenges. In recent years, the studio has won two medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show (2021 & 2022) for their show-stopping house plant studios.
https://theediblebusstop.com/

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Access Info
There is car parking at the estate, with designated parking bays for Blue Badge holders next to the Visitor Reception.

There is a ramp at the Orangery.

The estate offers toilet facilities with adaptations for disabled people, which can be found near to the ice cream parlour, next to the restaurant entrance, and outside the café. The estate also offers a changing places facility, which can be found near to the café.

The shop, café and picnic area have step-free level access into and throughout the areas. Other points of interest are accessed via ramps/slopes or steps.

A number of the main routes around the property have cobbled, uneven and ramped/sloped surfaces, so a shuttle is available to take visitors around the part of the site. Powered mobility vehicles and manual wheelchairs can also be borrowed from the Visitor Reception. The National Trust recommends booking these in advance.

Please view Detailed Access Guides at https://www.accessable.co.uk/national-trust/dunham-massey-national-trust to find out further details, including measurements and photographs.

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SPARK
The SPARK network was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking. 

SPARK #39 follows SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works, Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham, the John Rylands Library, Dunham Massey, Lindow Moss, Castlefield Viaduct, Gallery Oldham, The Atkinson, Castlefield Gallery and Northern Roots; and a group exhibition and events programme at Rogue Studios.

Castlefield Gallery continues to provide admin and co-ordination support via its Artist Environmental Lead, Jane Lawson. https://www.instagram.com/sparkartistsnetwork/

Photo ©National Trust Images/Paul Harris