Underhillians complete

Here are some pics of the mural finished. It is still up in the Hill Station, as the subsequent exhibitions have been delayed…

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More Underhillians

The Underhillians mural is coming along. Here are a few images of progress on Flickr. We’ve been handed a whole bunch of new drawings from children at HTGF School, next door to the cafe. They are so wonderful, they will keep us busy for the next two weeks filling out the underworld ecosystem.

In the meantime, also check out Dirt, the Movie – a film all about the soil beneath our feet.

Drawings emerge of the Underhillians

There have been some sightings of the creatures that lurk beneath our feet, deep in the soil beneath Telegraph Hill. Here is a sneak preview of a few of the drawings that have been provided, which will be used to create the Underhillians mural in the Hill Station.

More drawings are welcome as the display and mural will keep growing through July.

Also, more is understood about the important life that goes on in the soil, including the ‘hidden internet’ of fungi that helps plants communicate and resist disease. The Underhillians project is partly about seeing what goes on in our soil, as it is International Year of Soil. See more here.

Bosci’s blog

We have an extraordinary lodger in our house, a very spiritual and very hirsute human-animal or humanimal called Bosci. He is quite ascetic and hermetic, living in a very small cupboard, studying and drawing.

He is now producing a blog to entertain himself and share his thoughts about man as animal, and the spirits of the beasts. He is named after the Bosci, a sect of ancient Christians who lived in the wilderness and grew their hair long.

The Underhillians

It’s the International Year of Soils, so we’re thinking about what lies beneath our feet. We’re developing a project called The Underhillians.

Brian McKenzie is working with some local artists, planning a spectacular mural for the Hill Station. The mural will depict the amazing world of mysterious dwellers beneath Telegraph Hill.

We think there might be creatures a little like humans underfoot, and all kinds of animals too. There might be connecting tunnels and chambers, or places like the skate-park and schools, and different ways of living, working and having fun.

We’re calling out for imaginative ideas about what might be going on underground, the creatures there and how they live. People are invited to make drawings and notes on A5 cards, and to hand these in to the Hill Station staff before Monday 29^th June. These will be used to inspire the mural and the drawings will be displayed as part of the project.

Glorious midsummer 2014

The summer solstice parade in Telegraph Hill, 2014 was a great success. It was a smaller gathering than it has been in the past, as there were about a million other competing fairs, gigs, protests and parties. But the sun shone perfectly and everyone dressed beautifully. We held a costume-making workshop in the pub in the afternoon. Garlick Man this year came in fully bulbous garb, and the Old Nag of New Cross decided to go for a white dress, even though she’d been married before (last year, and the year before that…). One nice little thing we found out is that garlic has a long link with solstice – tradition holds that you should plant it on the winter solstice and harvest it on the summer solstice. All the more fitting that Plowed Garlick Hill has remembered its forgotten tradition. More photos here

Solstice mantle 2014

UPDATE: We now have an organiser, Gill Roth, and it is happening. For more details go to https://www.facebook.com/events/283349778513535/

It is approaching June 21st, the Summer solstice, and time for the Garlick Man to arise from his bed on Plowed Garlick Hill (SE14), dress up and marry the Green Woman of New Cross on the top of the hill.

For three years, we’ve organised three summer and three winter solstice parades, and they have been great. It’s been wonderful to have the involvement of Grow Wild to run food workshops and serve locally grown and foraged food. We’ve also been grateful to New Cross Learning, the Hill Station and the Telegraph pub for their support. However, now need to hand over the organising. We have loved it but we’re not great local organisers, having a lot of obligations and other projects on. It’s best if someone really enthusiastic takes it on.

It’s a fairly simple job and we can tell you everything you need to know, or just do it your way. However it goes it would be nice to keep the core revived tradition of the marriage.

Contact bridgetmcknz at gmail dot com if you’d like to do it. There’s not much time…

Open Studios 2014

We have lots of new work to show as part of the Telegraph Hill Festival Open Studios 5-6 April 2014. We didn’t take part last year so there is a build up of two years of work by all three of us. There is painting, printmaking, sculpture, installation and photography – all loosely exploring themes about nature, wildness and human-animal identity. An installation in the tree house is a memorial to lost trees and forests. Brian has been using new monoprinting techniques, as seen in the flyer image. Megan is showing some of the work that was in her portfolio, which won her place at the BRIT school for September 2014.

There are lots of other studios and houses showing work, including the notorious Nunhead & District Municipal Museum and Art Gallery in Gellatly Road, and on Sunday afternoon, a Skate/Art/Music party in Telegraph Hill Park.

Garlick Man 2013

Here are some photos from the Garlick Man summer solstice parade June 2013. 

Summer Solstice celebrations

Our Unextinction Machine activity has morphed into a project called Beuysterous…

Beuys terous

We rather exhausted ourselves with January Wassailing, February Tree Love Week and March Tree Play Month. I ended up spending more time than ever online and not enough time out in nature. So, instead of monthly events, we’re just going to do big things for the Summer Solstice in June, something to do with tree fungus in August, and then a project during National Tree Week in November/December. (More about that soon.)

This post is about what you could do to celebrate trees around the Summer Solstice. Midsummer is a time for celebrations of fertility and green growth all over the world especially in Europe.

We live in an area of South East London that used to be covered in fruit trees and which grew fruit and veg for the inner city. Telegraph Hill was then named Plowed Garlick Hill. Robert Browning, the poet, lived there for a time and…

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