Artist-Led Walk with Sheila Ghelani

Hold a black mirror carefully in the palm of your hand and look, listen and think about who you are in relation to the natural world around you on this participatory wander. What do you see and what remains just off to the side – hidden, overlooked, forgotten, unnoticed?

Popular in the 1800s with landscape painters and tourists, black mirrors were used to ‘tint’ views - a bit like the Instagram filters we use today. During this activity, you'll learn more about black mirrors and their use through time and will be given the chance to sketch like a landscape painter, write like a poet and look like a tourist - amongst other things.

After the walk, at 1:30pm, we'll be hosting a screening of 'The Last Ice Age' as part of the Shifting Landscapes Film Series in partnership with Emergence Magazine. Retracing his grandparents’ annual journey to Iceland’s Vatnajökull glacier to witness the loss of Europe’s largest ice cap with his son, Andri Snær Magnason searches for the stories that can help us understand our ecological crisis.
We also have two exhibitions to visit on-site, which will be open from 10am-3pm. In our gallery space, we are hosting Flat Earth by Phil Root. Phil Root uses ceramic processes to explore the limits of traditional craft pottery. He works with foraged and industrial materials such as waste clay from his local brick factory to present stories about land and our place in it. In our project space, we are hosting The Sick Rose by Jamie Seymour, a garden-like exhibition inspired by William Blake, where flowers, swans and watching eyes hold queer anxiety.

The walk will take place in a nearby park, sticking to paths and on very flat terrain suitable for pushchairs and wheelchairs. The wander will not be physically demanding and will accommodate the needs of the group. Please contact us in advance if you have any specific needs or questions about accessibility.

• All equipment will be provided, and those who attend will leave with their own Claude glass (aka a small handheld Black mirror).
• Dress for the weather. This outdoor session will go ahead in most weather conditions, except in extreme weather or heavy rain.
  

• Please check the weather forecast before arriving.
• If you can no longer make it, kindly cancel your ticket so someone else can join.
• Children are welcome to attend, but please note this is not designed as a family activity.
• Dogs are welcome on the walk, but only support and assistance dogs are permitted on site at MPND.
• The wander is participatory - you will be invited to try activities, but will be free to drop in and out of these as you like.
• We’ll start at MPND, where you can grab a hot drink and something to eat from Corita before heading out.

Sheila Ghelani is an artist whose performances, social art works, installations, texts and videos seek to make visible the connections between identity, ecology, science, history and the present day.

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