Emma Denby

DARK SKIES, WILD SEAS

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

Taking place at YHA Lands End in Penzance, Dark Skies, Wild Seas was a group residency exploring the surrounding area’s ancient sites and coastal walks. Ran by Mayes Creative, it gave a chance to develop our practice

For me, this was the perfect opportunity to apply my fascination of stone circles and ancient monoliths into real world practice and take advantage of the brilliant knowledge from the organisers of the residency, who academically research archeoastronomy in Cornwall. Being amongst the abundance of these sites there provided a fruitful starting point to further consider how groups of people have interacted with these stones throughout history and how, though not utilised for their original purpose, they draw the attention of visitors in to the circles, to experience them in thoughtful ways.

During the residency, we also took part in many workshops such as cyanotype printing on film and serpentine stone polishing. Being opened to different methods of working and other artists practice was invaluable, and having that lasting connection to other creative minds over the UK has benefited my creativity tremendously by seeing the huge variation and possibilities of creating artworks.