Drawing Movement
Movement is central to how I research sites, places, bodies, systems and materials. I draw from a background in dance and movement practice, applying forms of movement observation and analysis to island ecologies.
On Hilbre, I have studied the lift-and-drop movements of gulls feeding on mussels, the feeding grounds and directional shifts of oystercatchers, and the movement patterns of cormorants around the island’s shores. I also observe tidal crossings, waiting and retreat, changing water levels, lapping and dispersal, and the adjustments made by human bodies moving across sand, rock and wet ground.
The work begins with attentive observation. I trace movement directions, draw recurring movement shapes, plot pathways and register pauses, clusters, accelerations, repetitions and changes of orientation. These observations are recorded through gestural drawing, diagrammatic annotation, written verbs, poetic phrases and forms of improvised shorthand notation.
Movement analysis here is not presented as detached scientific measurement. It is a situated and embodied form of enquiry informed by dance knowledge. The observing body is already inside the movement structure it is attempting to understand.
Island-Situated Drawing Methodology
My island-situated drawing methodology investigates how movement can reveal the relations that shape a particular island ecology. Developed through sustained work with Hilbre Island, the method combines embodied observation, movement analysis, drawing, notation, performance and site-responsive installation.
Rather than approaching the island as a static landscape or visual subject, I attend to it as a shifting field of movements. Birds cross between feeding grounds and resting places. Tides open and close routes. Human bodies balance, pause, hesitate and adjust to uncertain terrain. Wind, water, sandstone, mussel beds, labour and weather all participate in the island’s changing spatial structure.
Drawing becomes a way of entering these relations, rather than simply representing them.
