Last weekend I was in Canterbury, Kent on a short residency in a forest, organised by Sondryfolk. I spent my time there filming a performance in which I built and then burned down a geodesic dome, dressed in a rough likeness of visionary polymath, R. Buckminster Fuller.
We were hosted by Sondryfolks Canterbury ambassador, Matthew Watkins who has an unquenchable thirst for knowledge and an impressive ability to understand and explain a seemingly unlimited number of subjects; we talked about everything from what geodesic shapes actually are and pure geometric models to abandoned towns and the apparent interconnectedness of everything in the universe. Matthew also supplied us with regular and much appreciated cups of tea, coffee and a variety of interesting vegan meals. I, along with friend/advisor/cameraman, Sam, stayed in a small wooden guest house called the Wendyhaus. Living conditions were basic and pared down, but we had a wood burner and lots of bedding and I enjoyed the strangeness of it in relation to my normal life. I liked the novelty of walking through a silent, empty forest in the middle of the night with a torch.
I felt very welcome on the residency and the performance went very well; the forest was a perfect setting for my work, both visually and in terms of the freedom and easy going nature of the place, which helped me to achieve what I wanted to, without any problems. I hope that the dome burning was a spectacle that will build upon the work that the first artist in residence, Alice Vandeleur Boorer did in establishing trust amongst the people that run the forest, and maybe creating a regular artists residency there.
Matthew Denniss 