Hagstone as Portal

A two hour workshop exploring queer ecology, with  the playful and deeply attentive spirit of Derek Jarman as our guide. Together we will approach the garden as a living temple.

‘Sun a pure white globe in a chalky sky, mist blowing across the Ness in milky veils, silent pussy willow woods the palest pastel yellow luminous in the silvery light.’ Modern Nature by Derek Jarman

What does it mean to ignore boundaries and collaborate freely with all that grows around us? When we give our full attention, and forget what we’ve been told, how does it transform our relationship to the garden? Let’s take a slow stroll together and give time to the vital art of noticing.

Through a mixture of creative prompts, poetry and creative writing exercises, participants will be invited to explore the garden through a queer lens. These responses will be woven into hagstone talismans, using a mixture of local seasonal materials and hagstones borrowed from the south coast near to Dungeness. 

Through the ritual of weaving our talismans or Tallis-hags as we like to call them, we will explore the hagstone’s rich folkloric roots. At once portals to pass to other dimensions, eyeglasses to see things as they really are (not as we desire them to be) and as empowering and protective south coast amulet for collective and personal resistance…