A Soft Landing, Sam Williams, 2024

Traces from the Trails
Submitted by Foresta Collective
on November 24, 2021, 12:10 PM UTC
https://miro.com/app/board/o9J_lHgdmb0=/?invite_link_id=10972183454

This publication is a record, an imagination, a memory, an encounter, a dreamtime, a provocation for ideas, a food for thought, an insight into Foresta Seasonal Academy trails and works shared by participants through the collective journey, an invitation to play, to sense, to think, to co-create. This invitation if for you, dear visitor, to join the conversations.
This publication is living, never finished, ever evolving, leaving space to the unarchivable, shattering linear unity of knowledge, a process of mapping or unmapping, a fascicular system, circles of convergence, that can be read starting anywhere and can be related to any other. It’s a gathering of experiences in continuous expansion, revealing the work process (not a final product).
Assemblies and assemblages of inquiries, reflections, conversations, multi-modal, multi-species, multi-situated collective practices, joining together diverse layers, collections that are collated poetically, thematically, informatively, associatively, to open up interpretation, through the act of subjectively selecting, based on desire, intuition, resonance, reciprocity. No one ‘curator’ is visible. Canals carved by the agency of running water.
- - Meadowing Yellow
    Submitted by Maria Sledmere
    on September 13, 2021, 12:27 PM UTC
    Maria Sledmere is an artist and poet based in Glasgow, currently finishing a DFA in Creative Writing. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and a member of the art and ecology collective, A+E. In 2021, The Palace of Humming Trees, her exhibition with Katie O’Grady and Jack O’Flynn, was shown at French Street Studios. Her debut collection, The Luna Erratum, is forthcoming with Dostoyevsky Wannabe and in 2020 she co-edited an anthology, the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene, with Rhian Williams. She blogs at mariaologyy.wordpress.com.
  - Meadow Variations
    Submitted by Maria Sledmere
    on September 13, 2021, 12:24 PM UTC
    Maria Sledmere is an artist and poet based in Glasgow, currently finishing a DFA in Creative Writing. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and a member of the art and ecology collective, A+E. In 2021, The Palace of Humming Trees, her exhibition with Katie O’Grady and Jack O’Flynn, was shown at French Street Studios. Her debut collection, The Luna Erratum, is forthcoming with Dostoyevsky Wannabe and in 2020 she co-edited an anthology, the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene, with Rhian Williams. She blogs at mariaologyy.wordpress.com.
  - - Broken Meadow
      Submitted by Maria Sledmere
      on September 13, 2021, 12:27 PM UTC
      Maria Sledmere is an artist and poet based in Glasgow, currently finishing a DFA in Creative Writing. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and a member of the art and ecology collective, A+E. In 2021, The Palace of Humming Trees, her exhibition with Katie O’Grady and Jack O’Flynn, was shown at French Street Studios. Her debut collection, The Luna Erratum, is forthcoming with Dostoyevsky Wannabe and in 2020 she co-edited an anthology, the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene, with Rhian Williams. She blogs at mariaologyy.wordpress.com.
    Meadow Fractal
    Submitted by Maria Sledmere
    on September 13, 2021, 12:23 PM UTC
    Maria Sledmere is an artist and poet based in Glasgow, currently finishing a DFA in Creative Writing. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and a member of the art and ecology collective, A+E. In 2021, The Palace of Humming Trees, her exhibition with Katie O’Grady and Jack O’Flynn, was shown at French Street Studios. Her debut collection, The Luna Erratum, is forthcoming with Dostoyevsky Wannabe and in 2020 she co-edited an anthology, the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene, with Rhian Williams. She blogs at mariaologyy.wordpress.com.
  Meadow Classic
  Submitted by Maria Sledmere
  on September 13, 2021, 12:22 PM UTC
  Maria Sledmere is an artist and poet based in Glasgow, currently finishing a DFA in Creative Writing. She is editor-in-chief at SPAM Press and a member of the art and ecology collective, A+E. In 2021, The Palace of Humming Trees, her exhibition with Katie O’Grady and Jack O’Flynn, was shown at French Street Studios. Her debut collection, The Luna Erratum, is forthcoming with Dostoyevsky Wannabe and in 2020 she co-edited an anthology, the weird folds: everyday poems from the anthropocene, with Rhian Williams. She blogs at mariaologyy.wordpress.com.
21st Century Nature
Submitted by Maria Sledmere
on September 13, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC
I had to get out of cyborg world so I wrote a sestina
— Kevin Killian

Begin lying down in the lush
medium-length loneliness, immersed
in melodrama of cyborg grasses
to “literally cure my depression”, lapidary
and crisp as a bluebell, closed to the wound
of the land and hope

Is a thing called meadow, I hope
to be hidden in the years ahead, summoned lush
from oakmoss lichen which kisses the wound
better. How to remain immersed
and held to lapidary
predator — mower of lawns and grasses

Once life more abundant grasses.
Hundreds lie down in protest. We eat hope
straight from tarmac or stop in lapidary
formation, me after you lain flat lushes
of each other. Immersed
in niche, inebriate, the online wound

Burning with the automatic wound
of my breath, warm in these grasses
endless to no end, not to farm us immersed
from data, “wanting to have been there longer” and hope
under a lush
set sun, bears lapidary

Stairwells to emergency blanket, pull lapidary
over my head wound
as emotion does tend to the lush
harm of us, soaked in meadow and cat grasses
for all we are hope
and sorry immersed

In worst of all effects, immersed
to the fresh hell of rain, lapidary
gone harvest a hope
had filled the chilling wound
with softness, more of these grasses
as if to stay lush

Despite any blessing, immersed in lush
hourfall, the lapidary grasses set to fire
hope is a wound in you
- ~
  Submitted by Thomas Silverman
  on October 7, 2021, 12:55 PM UTC
~
Submitted by Jaron Hill
on August 26, 2021, 9:48 AM UTC
- Snail fortress
  Submitted by Aleksandr Tishkov
  on June 19, 2021, 6:43 PM UTC
  Those who are familiar with Tottenham area can barely recognise it now. In the last year ‘regenerative’ development has taken over not only of the terrain but also of an air space. Visually unappealing, these intimidatingly tall buildings outhang over a little patch of allotment, the community garden of Grow Tottenham. By growing every day higher in the sky they leave less hope for such community to remain as a platform where you learn about togetherness, soil and food through all kinds of activities, from gardening to clay and drama workshops.
  For Tottenham Sculpture Garden I’ve created utopian scenario where living structures made by humans coexist within wildlife environment, and in some instances even being taken over by it.
  http://aleksandrtishkov.com
Gallus gallus domesticus
Submitted by Aleksandr Tishkov
on June 19, 2021, 7:49 PM UTC
An unknown person has built this magnificent house for chickens, unfortunately growing population of foxes in London has stopped this idea from being fully realised. Since then it stood untouched as a memorial. Now, a portrait of a feathery creature hangs there inside a pompous dough frame to commemorate this Gallus gallus domesticus subspecies, today more known as chicken.
This artwork was displayed at Grow Tottenham community garden during Tottenham Sculpture Garden along with the artworks of Ola Hincapie Poppy Keating Jonah G-b and Alfie Biro Sidford
Gallus gallus domesticus
Dough, egg yolk, plywood, pyrography, rusty nails, 2021
http://aleksandrtishkov.com
- - Ghostify
    Submitted by Anna Keleher
    on July 25, 2021, 8:57 AM UTC
    www.axisweb.org/p/annakeleher/
  Maisie at Prim's Orchard
  Submitted by Anna Keleher
  on July 25, 2021, 8:56 AM UTC
  www.axisweb.org/p/annakeleher/
- Tawny Owlet
  Submitted by Springfield Farm
  on June 18, 2021, 7:36 AM UTC
  Tawny Owlet, wet in the rain
  https://www.springfieldfarmgate.co.uk
Tawny Owlet
Submitted by Springfield Farm
on June 18, 2021, 7:35 AM UTC
Tawny Owlet, dry in the sunshine
https://www.springfieldfarmgate.co.uk
- - Mullein Moth Caterpillar
    Submitted by Springfield Farm
    on June 14, 2021, 7:19 PM UTC
    a Mullein Moth caterpillar eating my verbascum flowers
    https://www.springfieldfarmgate.co.uk
  Bees
  Submitted by Louis Masters
  on June 14, 2021, 9:22 AM UTC
- - Istanbul's Medicinal Plants Garden
    Submitted by Margot Drayson
    on March 16, 2023, 10:52 PM UTC
    This publication is a celebration of the 17th Istanbul Biennial, which focused on slow, fermentational programming and curation.
    “Rather than being a great tree, laden with sweet, ripe fruit, this biennial seeks to learn from the birds’ flight, from the once teeming seas, from the earth’s slow chemistry of renewal and nourishment”.
    Instead of the Biennial taking place in a specific area of the city, for its 17th edition, the events, exhibitions, and installations were dispersed throughout Istanbul in widely different venues. Through stimulating conversations and observations, the curatorial team hoped that such configuration would allow the 'seeding' of ideas and perspectives, carriers of slow but gradual and active change within various spatial and cultural locations of Istanbul.
    Fittingly, the opening of the Biennial was at the Zeytinburnu Medicinal Plants Garden, the first of its kind in Istanbul to cultivate and study the healing, health, and spiritual benefits of medicinal plants. The opening of the biennial embraced this plant-oriented vision and welcomed music performances drawing from medicinal texts, set on a commissioned concrete and aquatic garden by artist Mariah Lookman. Through the various art forms presented, the overall event-inauguration of the Biennial allowed and encouraged interaction and play with the plants, the garden, and the designed landscape.
    https://bienal.iksv.org/en/17th-istanbul-biennial/curatorial-statement
    Margot Drayson. Contributor to villavilla.co
  Astrological Herbalism
  Submitted by villa villa
  on June 9, 2021, 7:31 AM UTC
  Astrological Herbalism
  Also called astroherbology or medical astrology
  Is the relationship of plants to planets, planets to human organ systems and planets to zodiac signs
  It is the art of using astrological wisdom to inform and influence herbal and wellness choices
  Image 01— Drawing of medicinal plants (Chamomile, Valerian, Sage and Marshmallow)
  Image 02— Engraving of Nicholas Culpeper an English botanist, herbalist, physician and astrologer, who produced one of the most detailed works on medical astrology in Early Modern Europe
  villavilla.co
Sharing
Submitted by Thomas Silverman
on May 27, 2021, 10:06 PM UTC
I left some parsley unpicked and watched it flower in the heat.
I observe it being visited by a number of insects,
both day and night.
Gardening is about giving as much as receiving.
I'm discovering the importance of time and space,
and realising that I'm not doing this just for me any longer.
Let things bolt,
let them seed,
and watch just how many beings come to visit.
- A cherry update (after Izumi Shikibu)
  Submitted by Freya Johnson Ross
  on July 22, 2021, 3:57 PM UTC
  A cherry update (after Izumi Shikibu)
  if the one i’ve waited for came now what should i do
  A cherry update that is not really about cherries.
  I’ve been watching a tree for 5 years.
  Every year I see it get soo laden with amazing fruit but it is so high it would be impossible to pick any.
  They always seem to fall spoiled on the ground, left alone even by the birds. Cherries are my favourite fruit, by the by.
  So I’d walk past thinking oh I should do something oh what could I do oh how oh how could I though it’s on this busy road
  This year as we’ve shifted from late spring into summer I’ve realised there are many more cherry trees than I had realised. Out on walks I have found ‘new' cherry trees almost every day.
  + I’ve realised no two are the same type – giant dark ones, tiny luminous ones, sweet/sour.
  After a storm I realised one of the ‘new' trees was actually low enough I could pick from it, and also that lots of the dislodged fruit on the ground wasn’t spoiled so I could pick some more up!
  The next day as I was wandering thinking about/longing for how I could reach the ones on my original high tree, I found an enormous long branch just long on the ground.
  So I took it home.
  The next day I fashioned a cherry picker from an old bottle taped onto my giant stick.
  The next day feeling quite brazen I went to pick from the high tree, not sure at all if it would work.
  People stared, but it worked! I fed cherries to passing strangers and my arms hurt. Painstaking work it took an hour to get a handful.
  The next day I went back to pick some more. I didn’t feel hungry so made some jars of preserves.
  The next day sitting with what I love and it is aimless and pointless
  and the way that things you just let float, repeatedly, and for no reason, lead you places.
  Tiredness of wanting out:
  can we come in, inside the beloved feeling?
  The part of me that wants an end, is probably the bit that needs to end.
  www.freyajohnsonross.com
- Exeunt! Flores
  Submitted by Sol Paz Kistler
  on June 3, 2021, 2:49 PM UTC
  Exeunt! Flores
  solpazkistler@gmail.com
- Exeunt! Flores
  Submitted by Sol Paz Kistler
  on June 3, 2021, 2:47 PM UTC
  Exeunt! Flores
  solpazkistler@gmail.com
Quick Fix
Submitted by Nick Wood
on May 25, 2021, 5:02 PM UTC
Plan for a Garden in Two Parts
Submitted by Sam Wood
on May 17, 2021, 11:35 AM UTC
- Kissed Cy Twombly
  Submitted by Alexander Hetherington
  on June 24, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC
  http://alexanderhetherington.com
The Lavender of the Film
Submitted by Alexander Hetherington
on May 8, 2021, 6:04 PM UTC
Nine frames from films of mine that are arranged to appear like a Tarot card reading or maybe a spell, it’s some kind of bouquet, thinking about the opening sequence to Agnès Varda’s Cleo from 5 to 7 and also RWF’s Querelle, films with Tarot card readings (film plot and foreshadowing and perhaps something about remedies and sleep) - the other reference is a mistranslation of the term lavender print (due to the base color of the stock) from a restoration (care) of La Dolce Vita where mould on the original negative through a second scan of its real lavender print is referred to as the “lavender of the film”
http://alexanderhetherington.com
- Entanglement
  Submitted by Louis Masters
  on August 26, 2021, 9:49 AM UTC
Biological Control
Submitted by Louis Masters
on May 8, 2021, 6:01 PM UTC
Biological control- the use of natural enemies to reduce the damage caused by a pest
Quilla Constance Performing at Proud Camden
Submitted by Quilla Constance
on May 8, 2021, 10:36 AM UTC
Check out Quilla Constance's - Teasing out Contingencies - to enable more liberating modes of being!https://www.quillaconstance.com/teasing-out-contingencies/

Also see Quilla's contribution for the BBC IDEAS film: How Limits can Boost Your Creativity: https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/how-limits-can-boost-your-creativity/p08qhyr1

Photo by Andrew Crowe
- A Hocus Pocus tulip, unfurling in the wind
  Submitted by Edward Ball
  on May 16, 2021, 3:18 PM UTC
  A Hocus Pocus tulip, unfurling in the wind
- Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
  Submitted by Jessica Williams
  on May 8, 2021, 10:38 AM UTC
  http://www.jessicawilliams.info
adolescence on a sunny day
Submitted by Ayesha Jordan
on May 7, 2021, 7:14 PM UTC
http://www.ayeshajordan.com
- - Si's Allotment
    Submitted by Sarah Beck Mather
    on May 31, 2021, 9:08 AM UTC
    This is Si’s allotment plot.
    It’s off St. Anne’s, Nottingham,
    next to the city.
    It keeps him away and
    kept me away and safe for three months.
    He brought pickled sandwiches, a Twix
    and a coca cola to the Summer house
    as I read a book under a blanket.
    It was very special for me to have that place
    for a while.
    It was left for a time
    after Tony’s death,
    it seemed sad to drink wine
    all alone.
    But there’s warmer weather now
    and the gout has died down.
    I’m not there anymore but it’s
    starting to grow and seed again –
    fruit, veg, trees and apples,
    back to business.
    https://www.sarahbeckmather.com
  Wenlock Barn
  Submitted by Sam Williams
  on May 12, 2021, 8:41 AM UTC
  www.sam-w.com
- - Lateral Vein of Rainbow Chard
    Submitted by James Ravinet
    on May 9, 2021, 7:02 PM UTC
    https://jamesravinet.info
  rainbow chard Bright Lights
  Submitted by Edward Ball
  on May 4, 2021, 12:20 PM UTC
  rainbow chard Bright Lights, left to set seed and flower for pollinators. It has almost tripled in height in a week, becoming tree-like.
Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
Submitted by Jessica Williams
on May 4, 2021, 12:13 PM UTC
http://www.jessicawilliams.info
- Shatta recipe
  Submitted by Sam Williams
  on May 19, 2021, 8:03 PM UTC
  "Shatta is there on every Palestinian table, cutting through rich foods or pepping up others."
- Each Peach
  Submitted by Freya Johnson Ross
  on May 19, 2021, 10:10 AM UTC
  www.freyajohnsonross.com
Sourdough Love Letter
Submitted by Ines Neto dos Santos
on May 4, 2021, 12:09 PM UTC
https://ines-ns.com
Vespers
Submitted by Oluwaseun Olayiwola
on May 3, 2021, 9:03 PM UTC
https://www.oluwaseunolayiwola.com
- Get Back Down To Earth Worm
  Submitted by James Ormiston
  on May 10, 2021, 9:32 AM UTC
  Get Back Down To Earth Worm
- - - - Truffle Speaks
        Submitted by Anna Keleher
        on July 23, 2021, 1:45 PM UTC
        Spoken improvisation with Melissa Waddingham (Expert / forager and truffle hound trainer). Copyright Anna Keleher and Melissa Waddingham 2011.
        www.axisweb.org/p/annakeleher/
      Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
      Submitted by Jessica Williams
      on May 16, 2021, 3:17 PM UTC
      http://www.jessicawilliams.info
    - - Interlude: Dancing
        Submitted by Sam Williams
        on May 19, 2021, 8:27 AM UTC
        From Anna Tsing "The Mushroom At The End Of The World"
      Contamination as Collaboration
      Submitted by Sam Williams
      on May 13, 2021, 1:55 PM UTC
      Suggested reading:
      The Mushroom at the End of the World
      Anna Tsing
    Mushroom growing
    Submitted by Gwladys
    on May 13, 2021, 9:28 AM UTC
  as the earth, the urth
  Submitted by Jack Young
  on May 5, 2021, 2:20 PM UTC
  https://www.jackmyoung.net
as the earth, the urth
Submitted by Jack Young
on May 3, 2021, 2:34 PM UTC
https://www.jackmyoung.net
- - - Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
      Submitted by Jessica Williams
      on May 16, 2021, 3:15 PM UTC
      http://www.jessicawilliams.info
    Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
    Submitted by Jessica Williams
    on May 10, 2021, 9:34 AM UTC
    http://www.jessicawilliams.info
  Nr 113, Solvang, Oslo, 2015-2017
  Submitted by Jessica Williams
  on May 4, 2021, 12:17 PM UTC
  http://www.jessicawilliams.info
Seeded Futures
Submitted by Alice Hill-Woods
on May 2, 2021, 9:25 PM UTC
https://www.alicehillwoods.com

A Soft Landing is an online resource inspired by the activity of communal gardens and city allotments. It is a space where volunteers are invited to share, learn, contribute and care for themselves and others, through the sharing of material that could be used for nourishment, growth, pleasure, education or healing. This material might take the form of recipes, remedies, instructions, inspirations, sounds or images - but these are just suggestions.

Volunteers are welcome to contribute material to a fresh plot or respond to material from another. Visitors are free to notice all contributed material and take from it what they might need (a recipe, a remedy, or simply inspiration...) They may also request to volunteer and contribute at a later date.

Although there are no strict limits, there is a general focus on themes surrounding nature, ecology, plants, food, care and sustainability.

Visit often to see what is new and what is growing and if you are interested in making a contribution please write to hello@sam-w.com with the subject heading A Soft Landing and follow @a_soft_landing on Instagram.

A Soft Landing is a project by artist Sam Williams. Website by Nate van der Ende. Initiated as part of Axisweb micro-commission 2021.