Natural Monument

Natural Monument: Chalk Stream, Jacquie Campbell, 2021, chalk, tennis ball

Campbell's second monument has been placed beside The Lark, a chalk stream that runs through Bury St Edmunds. There are 3,000 chalk streams in the world, but 85% of them are in England. The combination of geology and climate creates a unique microsystem with supports particular wildlife. 

Anti-monument
 
Brown nut, seed husk, encoded tree,
Say, what do you recall?
The memory of how suddenly,
how violently I fall.
The way I’ll split and shoot and bear
up leaves that turn to green,
the heat of sun, the touch of air,
and darkness in between.
My thickening trunk that browns and grows
towards the teasing sky,
as leaves and fruits and falls and blows
mark seasons passing by.
 
Brown nut, seed husk, encoded tree,
are you remembering what will be? 
A different kind of history.
A glimpse of future memory.
 
Natalie Low

Jacquie Campbell As someone who is simultaneously baffled and fascinated by the everyday world, my artistic activity allows me to think through the questions that niggle at the back of my mind. I am often absorbed with how we perceive and connect with barely visible and overlooked processes that exist within our surroundings and everyday life. I construct spaces, journeys and sometimes objects that invite ‘noticing’. I am interested in how we can practice ‘deep looking’, beyond the visual, using all our senses. I wonder whether a stronger understanding and better connection with these unexamined processes would lead to different ways of being in the world: a sense of wellness and a new environmental conversation.
​Instagram @ jaccampbellrojo @flow.east @wildhabits2020 www.jaccampbell.com

Natalie Low enjoys putting words on paper and believes that everyone has a book of some sort inside them. She has published two chapbooks, Dementia (2015) and School Run (2017). She is a regular contributor to CollectConnect exhibitions, both as a writer and artist/maker. Instagram nat.low Facebook Natalie Low