Brighid Black
I am an artist, writer and researcher living in Teesdale, North East England.
I work across a variety of media, more recently focusing on performance, but including sound, moving image and assemblages based on my encounters with the land, as well as drawing. Recent research has engaged with subterranean environments. My working process involves bodily immersion in places that challenge my humancentric illusions of control: extreme environments such as caves or mines, and disorientating places like moors or the sea. Walking, sitting or being-with the land and meditation are part of my process. Gathering found objects, video and film footage, drawings, photographs, and recording sounds supports the development of the work. My research is interdisciplinary. I work with archaeological assemblages, built structures, and landscapes, recently a Neolithic tomb on Orkney, and cave sites in the North Pennines and North Yorkshire. My interest in archaeology and prehistoric lifeways encompasses research into contemporary perceptions and narratives around these sites. Evolving from this, speculative inquiry, through performance, creates possibilities for human/non-human exchanges and an expanded understanding of community through ritual. Recent performances have involved shared ceremonies, collectively creating the causes for less destructive, extractive approaches to more-than-human worlds. Influences on my practice include anthropology, geology, botany, mythology, folklore, and literature.
I have worked with Nenthead Mines Conservation Society and Yorkshire Dales National Park in the development of my practice research and am a member of the British Caving Association and the British Cave Research Association. I presented my practice research at the Society for Artistic Research Conference in Trondheim in 2023 and at the Theatre and Performance Research Association Conference in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in 2024. I attended the British Cave Research Association Conference in Bristol in 2025.
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