Tending to the Heap

'Heap-work' is what Jenny calls the entanglement of life and research. The 'heap’ is a process-driven ecology of care, a body of work drawing on personal narrative and theory.

Seeking to unsettle the binaries between human/nonhuman, birth/death, growth/decay, this project gleans from and adds to the heap through a broad range of interdisciplinary thinking and disciplines.‘Tending to the heap’ is an expression of the care work that we might do together…

Constructed from hundreds of images, here, the ‘heap’ will become a giant freeform collage that sprawls and grows over the duration of the festival. Gleaned from all walks of life, from all areas of the research (high and low and everything in between) the images are cut out and pieced together to form new and constantly evolving conversations - connections - or poetics of relation.

A co-creation born of a compost methodology; it is a fragile but care-laden ecosystem in a constant state of flux. Tenderness is (as John Berger notes) a response to pain - but it is also an expression of the refusal to judge. One chooses to be tender, and as such - it is almost a ‘defiant act of freedom’.

You are invited to help ‘tend to the heap’ and contribute your attention as an act of refusal, in an act of radical care. Jenny will be in 'attendance' on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings to tend to the heap and share the story of her practice-making, but the heap will largely be self governing and develop in freeform (with the help of participants and passers by) over the course of the festival. Come play, add your story and see where it grows…

Book ahead or drop in.

If you have any access needs, please let us know in advance so we can do our best to support your participation - contact k.pelen@csm.arts.ac.uk

This event is part of Poetics of Care: a festival of Creative Health.