Soft Fascination
Soft Fascination is a gentle collaboration between the contributing artists and You. Bringing the forest to you
Soft Fascination draws on the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or ‘Forest Bathing’, which is a process of experiencing nature through the five senses. It has scientifically backed health benefits.
“[Forest Bathing] is not an exercise, or hiking, or jogging. It is simply being in nature, connecting with it through our sense of sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Outside is where we can smell the flowers, taste the fresh air, look at the changing colours of the trees, hear the birds singing and feel the breeze on our skin. And when we open up our senses, we begin to connect to the natural world.”
- Forest Bathing Sarah Devos & Katriina Kilpi
In this package you will find a Forest Bathing Kit, designed and put together by artists Helen, Neelam, Nova and People United. We want to bring the Forest to you.
Helen Seymour
Forest Glasses
Hello! I’m Helen Seymour, a multidisciplinary disabled artist who is proud to be contributing to a more diverse arts sector. My debut poetry collection “The Underlook” was published in January 2022.
I really hope you like your forest glasses. I was inspired to make them after our own forest bathing session. I was struck by the abundance of green and I have layered the see-through sheets to get just the right colour - they are a mix of blue, yellow and green. Hopefully these will help you feel like you’ve been transported to a woodland haven.
Instructions:
Find the forest glasses in the brown envelope. When you put them on, you will be looking at familiar surroundings with a new perspective!
You can play with how things look in different lights, it might be nice to sit by a window while you wear them.
Of course, if the glasses make you feel at all unwell, or you don’t like the experience, take them off and take a moment to settle back to normal.
You can either wear them for a short time, or much longer, allowing the green to wash over you as you sit calmly, taking some nice deep breaths.
Nova Plant ink and Scented Oil
Hello! I’m Nova, a participatory artist. Having graduated with a BA (Hons) in Fine Art, I now work in schools and in community settings. I love to work with children and young people and my participatory practice is youth-led, collaborative, adaptable and guided by those taking part.
The Experience
During my forest bathing experience in Blean Woods in Canterbury, I walked quietly into the woods trying to find a place to rest. I found a welcoming tree and sat in-between its roots, took some deep breaths, relaxed and closed my eyes. My body felt very tired but the tree supported me. After a short while, I began to notice different aromas – the freshness of the plants and trees surrounding me, the earth beneath me and particularly the smell of rosemary. You will find some rosemary oil in your kit.
After fifteen minutes or so, I began to walk again and noticed the woods were covered in fern plants, many with leaves over 3ft. I love fern leaves so I foraged some to make you some fern leaf ink, which you will find in your kit.
The Kit
1 x Fern Leaf Ink test tube (made from fern leaves)
1 x Rosemary oil (in a small bottle)
1 x Blotting paper
1 x Palm-sized ceramic dish
Ingredients Plant Ink:
Fern leaves, lemon juice, baking powder, water.
Rosemary Oil: 100% Essential Oil with Rosemary.
Reminder:
For external use only. Avoid contact with the eyes. Discontinue if irritation occurs. Keep tightly sealed. Store in a cool, dry place.
How to Use
Plant Ink
1. Shake the test tube of fern leaf ink so the plant residue mixes with the liquid.
2. Pour some of the liquid into the small ceramic dish provided.
3. Brush the ink on to the blotting paper and leave to dry. You can experiment by layering the ink to obtain a deeper depth of colour.
Rosemary Oil
1. You can use the small ceramic dish provided to place a few drops of rosemary oil on to.
2. Place the ceramic dish in the palm of your hand and smell.
3. The aroma can be described as warm, herbaceous and slightly sweet. Maybe you could think of your own description?
4. There are many ways that you can use this oil: Diffuser, vaporise, bath, massage, topical, perfume, home and cleaning.
Neelam
Soundscape
Hi! I’m Neelam, a queer Indian poet and multidisciplinary artist. I love working with illustrators, musicians, dancers and film! My debut poetry collection ‘RANI’ will be published by Verve in Autumn 2022.
After forest bathing, I was inspired by all the beautiful sounds of the forest and decided to write a poem and create a soundscape to accompany it. In the kit you’ll find a written version of the poem, with a link which you can type into your Internet browser (and a QR code if it’s easier for you to scan it instead). This link will lead you to a YouTube video, where you can hear me performing the poem, along with the soundscape and music. I’ve also included a second item – a clay bird whistle in a brown box.
Here’s how to use your clay bird whistle:
To play your bird whistle, fill the bird with water using the hole at the top of its head. Blow through the tail! You should be able to hear a warbling twitter. The pitch of this sound can be changed by covering the hole on the bird’s head with a finger, or gently tilting the bird up and down as you blow.
Hello!
We are People United, an organisation producing creative projects with kindness and care at their core. Soft Fascination is part of a larger project called Futures of Care - a collaborative multi-arts programme exploring care, taking place across East Kent.
We took part in the forest bathing session alongside Helen, Nova and Neelam. Our contribution in this kit is moss, which represents the living forest floor.
Instructions
Feel free to touch and smell the moss. It has been preserved, so doesn’t need to be watered.
Selina and Toni-Dee, the artists who first imagined and began Soft Fascination spend the majority of their time in urban environments, and the forests in their local area. Drawing on the Japanese practice of shinrin-yoku, or ‘Forest Bathing’, they wanted to ask the question - as we approach climate catastrophe, what is the role of nature in our practices of care, and how is that role one of mutual love and protection?
Soft Fascination centres those for whom unimpeded access to nature might feel most challenging– and brings people together to create a forest ‘bath’ that can be taken at home.
The Artists’ hopes for Soft Fascination
That we create something that is beautiful and promotes wellbeing for all involved.
That all involved find a way of incorporating forest bathing into our practices more regularly and become advocates for its benefits and our connections with the earth.
That the recipients of our gift experience something immersive that we’ve created for them, and enjoy a ‘forest bath’ at home.
Soft Fascination
A collaboration between Selina Thompson and People United
Selina Thompson Ltd makes work in collaboration. When we talk about collaboration, we are speaking of the ways in which things can be shared and how all taking part can have stakes in the outcome. We are curiously examining collective thoughts, ideas, musings and feelings.
Collaboration, when it is functioning as best it can, opens us to working in ways that wouldn’t be possible in isolation - in a togetherness that makes space for dreaming and re-imagining how we might live, work and find pleasure in our lives, especially for those of us who the world does not accommodate.
We are dreaming together as if our lives depend on it, because they do.
When we first started dreaming of this collaboration, we made plans - and in line with much art made by disabled artists, we made contingencies. We made back up plans to our back up plans, being mindful of how changing bodies and minds can shift one time-line into another.
We, as disabled artists, know that - along with flare ups, burnout, and recovery - art-making is not linear. We know that what starts as one thing can transform into another and that disability as a concept is disruption - the kind that pushes adaptation from the realm of failure to innovation.
Soft Fascination - a project brewed in rooms in Birmingham, has travelled the country to Canterbury, passed hands, been injected into conversation, taken into rooms with new artists, and unsealed new thought.
It requires no other material than your body, and we hope it can spark a communication between you and your environment. As the world sits on the edge of climate catastrophe, Soft Fascination is here to examine the role of nature in our practices of care whilst centering those whose access to the natural world may be impeded.
We hope you enjoy it.
If you would like to get in touch with us and share your thoughts we are on www.peopleunited.org.uk
You can email us on info@peopleunited.org.uk or find us on Facebook and Instagram as People United.
We would like to thank our partners who made this beautiful work possible.
This is more than just a walk...
