Thresholds

Thresholds, 2024
Moss, sheep’s wool felt, linen thread, leftover OSB, scrap
plasterboard
Site-specific commission for The Whitaker Museum, Rossendale
We are used to seeing moss taking over walls and buildings. It
evokes the abandoned and the derelict, somewhere without
humans. Here moss breaks through the walls into a well-used,
maintained space, no longer either/or but both together.
By allowing a swathe of living environment into the Museum this
installation makes a strong statement about the worth of the
biosphere around us; redefining our relationship with the more-
than-human.
The three Thresholds create a liminal space, like portals into a
parallel universe where our built environment invites a wealth of
biodiversity to share space equitably. They span space and time,
harking back to Lancashire’s pre-Industrial landscape of meres and
mosses.
This work is a positive affirmation, hoping that we are able to pivot
to living within the parameters of our planet and a non-extractive,
regenerative response to the world. It provides a fantastical
speculative future, where the agency of the natural world can break
through into our own and help us to solve the challenges and
traumas that we face.