Over the past six years, the artists have been moving and filming in Leyton Marshes, a specific area that sits within the nature reserve and common land of Hackney Marshes, in the multicultural city of London; returning once a month to enter in correspondence with this ancient marsh land, its non-human inhabitants and its human passers-by. The concept of correspondence was originally conceived by anthropologist Tim Ingold, as an alternative to intersubjectivity (Ingold, 2018). Ingold writes that ‘to correspond is to move along together in time and space’

As the environment transforms through seasonal change, Claire moves with plants and Dominique relates with her camera.

The installation presents two years of monthly recordings from March 2021 to February 2023 and is further enhanced by an enveloping three- dimensional audio design created by Cesar Salazar Portillo.

Filmed handheld in the emergence of the moment and at times including camera shake and blurriness, the images highlight moments of heightened connections between the seer and the seen in resonance with their situated context.

The four screens, their 360 placement and the spatial soundscape recreate the three-dimensionality of this heightened state of awareness in landscape that both artists experience in each encounter.

The committed nature of this durational and iterative process of returning has enabled a deep listening of both internal and external landscapes in relation to each other and the ecology of the Marshes.

Furthermore, the audio-visual installation therefore invites the audience to slow down and attune their sensate body and felt sense to the incredible spectacle of nature that one can easily miss on an everyday basis.

Dominique Rivoal is a Doctoral candidate developing a somatic filming practice, weaving together the interdisciplinary field of screendance (film and dance) with somatic movement practices with the objective of adapting and testing somatic method of self-awareness to encourage alternative ways of seeing and being with.

Claire Lousssouarn is a movement artist, herbalist, filmmaker and anthropologist whose practice is deeply committed to unleash the feral potential of our bodies and expand our understanding of what it is to be human in dialogue with a landscape and its non-human beings. Hackney Marshes, this haven of ecological diversity in the heart of London, has been a fundamental partner in the development of her practice. Her first book How to Be Feral: Movement Practices to Re-wild your Body shares her journey, personal reflections and practices to reconnect with our wild nature, inside and outside.