Reciprocity is an ongoing collaboration with Emma Elliott. Working towards a new performance work documented through video around concepts surrounding the decline of our ecology and the intrinsic human connection to plants. This project is centred around a residency in Panama which took place in June 2022.
Where the Jungle Meets the Sea… The World is Split in Two.
Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak
2022
Video (5 minutes 44)
Where The Jungle Meets the Sea…The World is Split in Two considers concepts surrounding ecological decline and the intrinsic human connection to plants. The footage was shot in Armila, Panama in June 2022. Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak spent time together researching and experiencing living with the Guna Yala people, a matriarchal autonomous Indigenous community. This jungle region, the Darien Gap is also one of the world's most dangerous migration routes consisting of miles of dense roadless rainforest, mountains, and swamps. Hundreds of migrants passing through the town everyday has become part of the story.
This work considers the relationship between plants and people, unique cultural differences in contrast to commonalities and how globalisation can affect even the most isolated of communities. The two videos were edited by each artist in conversation with the other incorporating movement, dance, and sound recordings. Elliott edited ‘Where the Jungle meets the Sea’ and Olczak ‘The World Splits in Two’ which form part of a new collaborative body of work called Reciprocity that celebrates connections between society and the non-human.
The two titles that form one sentence Where the Jungle Meets The Sea…The World is Split in Two reflects the unique location of Armila on the border of Colombia and Panama, and the idea that those building the Panama Canal were said to feel that they were splitting the world into two halves. This is a commentary on the Global North, South Divide and how climate issues are exacerbating it. Throughout the videos Olczak and Elliott address the struggles and fulfilment of collaborative practice and being situated in a tropical paradise but also in an unstable region in terms of political uncertainty, limited resources, and the elemental forces. They do this using binding that both connects the two artists and limits them. Working together to create a joint project highlighted how important it is to step back and work together collectively, as societies also must do to address climate change. Collective interest and co-operation were also a key part of life in the Guna culture. Materiality is another presiding theme. This work takes the viewer on an elemental journey from earth; riverside clay to purify the skin, to water; the river connecting and flowing into the sea, to air; the rainforest planetary lungs and finally to fire; used to cook food and burn waste.
Blog about the experience can be viewed here
This time in Guna Yala allowed for learning from an autonomous Indigenous matriarchal culture and experimentation with movement, dance, sound recordings, and have plants as the protagonists in performance work. On return to the UK from the research made during the residency a new body of physical and video work was created that celebrates connections between society and the non-human. Language and communication are a key consideration with regard to this research project. In Western society plants and land are seen and labelled as resources, whereas in indigenous communities plants are commonly viewed as a gift, and they believe in looking at nature not as a resource, but as a sort of kinship. Indigenous culture and the use of language promote restorative reciprocity and this healthy respectful relationship with nature is a key factor as we begin to navigate the effects of climate change.
The residency was supported by La Wayaka Current. A nomadic arts residency & research project curated in connection to remote natural environments & indigenous knowledge. Working to develop new perspectives through creative practice and critical thought at a time of ecological and climatic crisis. Funding was also received from the University of Gloucestershire and the Eaton Fund.
Collaborative lino print made with Emma Elliott in Armila, Panama on fabric hand dyed with achiote.
In Solidarity
Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak
2024
Video (4 minutes 7 seconds )
Shown at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens with the Royal Society of Sculptors.
In Solidarity is a video work created collaboratively between Emma Elliott and Susie Olczak that combines storytelling from their time in Armila, Panama; where Elliott and Olczak spent time together researching and experiencing living in the Darien Gap, with footage shot in Cornwall, 2023.
In Solidarity considers the significance of walking throughout human existence and its connection to survival and place. People walk to save their lives, for spiritual enlightenment, for healing and for leisure. Pertinent to their discussions and core theme of this work is their time spent in Armila, in the Guna Yala region which holds the world's most dangerous migration routes consisting of miles of dense roadless rainforest, mountains, and swamps. The migrant crisis in Armila became an unexpected and significant dynamic of their residency with hundreds of migrants passing through the town everyday, their presence quickly became a large part of the story of Armila and their time there.
Shot in Cornwall where the artists walked parts of the St Michael’s Way; a coast to coast pilgrimage while reminiscing about their time in the Darien Gap. Footage also shot on the North Coast and at Tremenheere Sculpture Gardens.
This work was made in direct conversation with their past work Where The Jungle Meets the Sea… The World is Split in Two, 2022 and is a response to the relationship between landscape, and the deliberate act of walking, to human connection and shared experiences.