SPAN Arts, a prominent arts charity in Pembrokeshire, has been breaking conventions and opening up new conversations with this year's Love Stories to Nature Commission. This innovative initiative has invited artists and creative practitioners to channel their creativity towards celebrating, questioning and advocating for the environment.
In the initial phase of the project through 2022, commissioned artists to create captivating new work that showcased the profound connection between art and the environment. These creations ranged from a poignant short film capturing the spring tide in East Angle Bay to textile flags aiding butterflies in navigating open spaces. They also featured a spectacular community sand art masterpiece and an immersive digital installation, inspired by sound bites submitted by the public, depicting their favourite natural spaces. These projects unfolded in diverse locations across Pembrokeshire, demonstrating the artists' commitment to inspiring, innovative, ambitious, and engaging environmental art.
What emerged from this artistic journey was a powerful message: the environment can serve as a source of enrichment, inspiration, and renewal in various ways.
Emily Laurens is one of the latest artists to be commissioned by SPAN Arts. As part of her contribution to this project, the multidisciplinary artist has been creating a mockumentary film exploring an exciting concept – DATE NATURE!
Emily Laurens is a socially engaged artist, co-director of Feral Theatre, co-founder of Lost Species Day, Play Officer for the National Trust and trainee Art Psychotherapist. Her work is about ecological crisis and social justice and uses metaphor to better understand the world and how radical imagination can be used to envision alternate futures.
An open call was extended to individuals interested in being part of this project and appearing in the film. After careful selection, three participants have been recruited to collaborate with Emily, promising an exciting and unconventional project.
The mockumentary film follows the fortunes of three people from Pembrokeshire using the Date Nature app. The app invites people to hook up with, date and hopefully enter into meaningful relationships with other beings in the natural world, a tree, a bindweed plant, a pebble or a wetland the opportunities are endless.
This film is inspired by the ecosexuality movement and ideas from queer ecology. It explores notions of natural and unnatural and the opportunity we have to stay with the troubling times we live in, embrace complexity and get entangled in nature.
The film premier will be taking place at Walden Arts, Cardigan on 25th November. Tickets are free but booking is essential. As well as premiering the film there will be talks and activities on the theme of dating nature. Ticket holders are invited to dress to impress!
SPAN Arts continues to bridge the gap between environmental awareness and artistic expression, proving that the beauty of nature is an unending source of inspiration for creative minds.