Old Friends is a series of six multi-part, multi-species, artworks (5 permanent and 1 living) installed along the Cinder Track, a historic railway line that ran between Scarborough and Whitby and is now a popular cycleway, footpath and important green corridor for wildlife.
The multi-sensory works use planting, wilding, wood, earthwork, seeds and the bio-adaptive textures of a fossil dense stone to create dwell spaces for humans and non-human beings.
The title Old Friends is a term used to describe the more than human elements of the human body: the microbes that protect human health by regulating our immune systems. Developed through research with academics, conservationists, and local communities the work draws on research into the symbiotic relationships of the human body and natural world: the aerobiome, microbiome, and the correlation between human proximity to nature and the benefits this brings to human health, and our willingness to fight for nature justice.
The work invites people to slow down and connect to the nature along the Cinder Track. As social sculptures, designed to be interacted with and used, each work focusses on a different sense, species and action.
Works are as follows:
- A living artwork comprising a sensory planting area with strongly scented flora, creating an olfactory experience that shifts perception as you enter the track from the town, while providing support species for local spiders, beetles and moths.
- A gathering area from which to forage, with furniture made for and from nature. Taking visual inspiration from the stacking of haybales further along the track, sculptural seating and tables made of stone and turf, invite audiences to forage nearby fruits and then sit, eat and enjoy an area of grassland that will now be rewilded as part of the artwork to also provide foraging ground for hoverflies and butterflies.
- A bio-adaptive stone sitting circle set within trees for children to play and make with found materials. This work is directly inspired by the geology of the area and designed to connect to the microbiome of the ground.
- A resting space for gastropods, anthropods and people inspired by the communal huddling of snails and woodlice within the walls of the railwayline tunnels. This work includes seed balls that will gradually disperse, containing a custom made Cinder Track seed mix to enrich this area with flora naturalised to the track. Packets of this project seed mix are also available for people to pick up for free from the Grow Scarborough Seed Hub at Scarborough Library.
- Nesting spaces for humans that celebrate the importance of all stages of a trees life including the importance of the tree canopy to human health and the benefits of dead wood to nature. Audiences are encouraged to add windfall wood to their seat, then sit, breath in and reflect on the interconnected health of trees all lifeforms.
- Listening and whispering holes in the walls of a viaduct, inviting passers by to listen to the birds of Scalby Beck at one end of the viaduct and whisper their secrets to the bees at the other. This work is inspired by the ancient tradition of whispering your secrets to the bees and includes the enhancement of habitat within the beck to support bees and marsh tit who are on the red list of endangered species.
Developed through an extensive programme of workshops including bio-blitz, foraging and making with sustainable art materials, dorodango and turf building, the project also included the creation of a poster trail made with Barrowcliff Primary School to launch the project. The posters are based on paintings made by the children using earth paint to depict the flowers included in the projects Cinder Track Seed Mix.
This work was commissioned by Invisible Dust and Yorkshire Wildlife Trust as part of Wild Eye.
Further information can be found here: https://wildeye.org.uk/project/old-friends/
Photographs by Jules Lister. End photograph by Richard Ponter.