A Strange Kind of Knowing, curated by Olivia Penrose Punnett, features the work of Verity Birt, Holly Bynoe, Kristina Chan, Fourthland, Susan Hiller, Katja Hock, Coral Kindred-Boothby, Penny McCarthy, Kate McMillan, Aimée Parrott, Chantal Powell, Tai Shani & Eleanor May Watson.

A Strange Kind of Knowing will run at Arusha Gallery on 7-14th December, 2021. The Gallery will be open from 10 am - 6 pm Monday - Sunday. Exhibition preview will be held on 7th December with a late opening on Thursday 9th, December.

The show will then move to Haarlem Artspace Gallery and will be on view from 4th February - 13th March. Opening hours are Saturdays and Sundays 11am - 4pm with the preview Friday 4th February, 2022.

A Strange Kind of Knowing will explore nuance, intuition, the land, environmental cycles and phenomena. All artists present work about alternative and marginalised knowledge, or embodied knowledge intrinsically linked with the natural world. These subjects seek a deep remembering of our preconditioned bodies, minds and internal landscapes.

Taking place over the winter season, the show emerges from the forced 'winter' of the Pandemic. The moon, weather and natural rhythms all play a part, allowing space for interconnection, and re-enchantment; valuing nuance and a more complicated appreciation of our natures.

Thank you Olivia for showcasing my work, “How to Sway on Crick Hill”, 2020, Digital Video, looped. 

‘How to Sway on Crick Hill ‘

Artist, spiritualist and medicine woman Holly Bynoe’s film still of the gentle movement of wild cane fronds, or ‘arrows’ from How to Sway on Crick Hill (2020), draws on her deep interest in the spiritual and healing properties of plants, regenerative agriculture and ways of undoing the ‘plantationocene’.

How to Sway on Crick Hill (2020) captures the ritual of walking, observing and listening into the wildness, freedom and all-sustaining nature around us. Shot in St. James, Barbados, a parish undergoing enormous development since the 80s, this small plot of wilding land presents an apothecary of care to the body, mind and spirit. 

Beneath the feet, layers of fertile soil, limestone, mycorrhizae, vermicast, and Earth essence provide the foundation of living, being and elevation. Wild grasses, botanicals and cane, sway in the evening new moon breeze. Cane blooms erupt seasonally, reminding us of the evolving nature of post-colonial, post-plantation futures.

What might these grasses teach us about resiliencies? 

What might the winds of renewal bring in if we restore our balance with Pachamama?

What knowledge might the ground bring in to teach us about recovering from post-colonial traumas?

In October 2021, this piece of land was razed.