SPARK #33: Field and Forest
Join this film screening fundraiser for the Save Ryebank Fields campaign, in collaboration with SPARK artists network.
Tickets £6 + 75p booking fee.
Featuring:
- An introduction to the Save Ryebank Fields campaign
- Sound pieces The Blackbird of Armada Way by Katy McGahan and Edgeland by Hayley Suviste
- Screening of The Entangled Forest by Nick Jordan
- and The Happy Man by Katy McGahan
- Reflection/discussion
Ryebank Fields is a 4.6 hectare patch of open green space on the border of Chorlton and Stretford in South Manchester. It was gifted by Manchester City Council to Manchester Polytechnic (now Manchester Metropolitan University) for use as playing fields. The University abandoned the fields in 1996, since when the land has re-wilded into a mosaic of natural habitats. It is a fantastic green area accessible to all and a well used and loved Community asset. The fields are home to over 1400 trees and countless birds, bats, mammals and insects, as well as providing invaluable food and shelter for pollinators. They also act as a carbon sink and natural floodplain and combat air pollution in this densely populated urban area which is bordered by a local school.
Currently Ryebank Fields is under threat of development from Manchester Metropolitan University who are in the process of selling the fields to property developers. A development framework was adopted by Manchester City Council with proposals for 120 houses. Subsequently, MMU commissioned a number of reports as part of the process of selling the site to a developer.
As part of the campaign to Save Ryebank Fields, the Friends of Ryebank Fields (FORF) group was established in 2018 with the aim of opposing any development of the site. FORF are continuing to commission reports which challenge statements in the MMU reports, and have employed a planning consultant on how best to oppose any planning application which may eventually be brought forward. These have been funded by donations and crowdfunding.
Meanwhile, FORF and our supporters continue to introduce people to Ryebank Fields, through events and activities, video interviews with locals and a series of stunning photographs capturing the natural beauty her and on our Facebook page. If you would like to support FORF, please sign the petition, sign up to our email list ryebankfieldsfriends@gmail.com – and if you are able, support our JustGiving appeal
https://www.saveryebankfields.co.uk/
Directions
The Carlton Club is a 15-minute walk from Firswood Metro station and can be located on the 86 bus route from the city centre (alight on Upper Chorlton Road, walk up Wood Rd, turn left).
There are also bike racks at the club which can be used by anyone visiting.
More about the films
The Entangled Forest (17 mins) directed by Nick Jordan
The Entangled Forest the multifaceted interrelationships between trees and fungi within forest ecologies. Featuring the voice of ecologist Suzanne Simard, and her ground-breaking research into tree and fungi communities, the documentary reflects on the ‘biological neural network’ of forest ecosystems, and how the reciprocal, shared behaviour of mycelium and trees creates a resilient and healthy community of co-dependent species.
Highlighting cooperation, mutual aid and the redistribution of resources between neighbouring species, the film interweaves Simard’s observations on the ‘wood wide web’ with an atmospheric and textural collaborative soundtrack score, recorded with traditional folk instruments, woodwind and analogue synths.
The documentary features a diverse range of tree species and fruiting fungi, growing in ancient forests and urban woodland habitats; filmed from the blazing heat of late summer to the frozen depths of winter.
Nick Jordan is a multidisciplinary artist whose work centres upon the interconnections between cultural, social and natural ecologies. His field of practice includes film, print, photography, painting, drawing, sculptural objects and collaborations. Exploring the interdependent spaces that exist between the human and non-human, Jordan’s hybrid documentaries are filmed and edited with an unplanned or intuitive response to material, people and environments. The films often combine original footage with archival elements and soundscapes, to create oblique, layered narratives.
With an interest in shared agency and collaborative practice, Jordan’s work often features cooperative input from practitioners working in life sciences, such as ecology, botany and genetics, as well as from the fields of anthropology, history and healthcare.
The Happy Man Tree (75mins) directed by Katy McGahan
When a group of Hackney locals discover that a property developer has been granted permission by the Council to fell a much-loved 150-year-old London Plane tree which even has its own name, The Happy Man Tree, they rally to save it from the clutches of the chainsaw. Director Katy McGahan started filming at the very beginning of the campaign and has created a unique insight into how a group of people came together and created a singular community around this street tree in North London.
https://nickjordan.info
Katy McGahan is a filmmaker and multi-disciplinary artist based in the High Peak, Derbyshire. She uses moving image, audio, collaborative practice and activism to interrogate the tensions that exist between our ongoing disconnection with the rest of the living world and our simultaneous efforts to re-connect with it. She is interested in making work that re-evaluates our place within nature in this time of flux. She runs participatory workshops and radical film and audio courses under the banner of Hyenas in Petticoats. She is a founding member of the Notice This Tree climate action group which is currently touring towns and cities across the UK.
https://www.katymcgahan.com/
More about Hayley Suviste and SPARK
Hayley Suviste is a sound artist and composer based in Manchester(UK). Working across field recording, archival sound, and oral history, Hayley uses her music to explore community and culture. Hayley’s work explores the interplay between sound, place, and memory, uncovering the hidden histories and sensory textures woven into both our urban and rural landscapes. Through field recordings, oral histories, composed music, and moving image, she brings to life the often-unheard narratives that shape our environments. Her practice spans installation art, live performance, and long-form compositions, using techniques such as ambisonics and multi-channel audio to create expansive sonic experiences that invite reflection on the intricate relationships between memory, belonging, and the spaces we inhabit.
https://hayleysuviste.co.uk/
SPARK
The SPARK network was set up by Castlefield Gallery in 2022 to facilitate a Greater Manchester/North West-based network of artists wanting to intervene in the climate crisis. The gallery initiated SPARK in response to the high demand for places on the 2021/22 SUSTAIN programme focussed on low carbon artmaking.
Field and Forest (SPARK #31A) follows SPARK sessions at Manchester Art Gallery, Rogue, The Birley (Preston), Eccles Friends Meeting House, Manchester Museum, AIR Gallery, Paradise Works, Editional Studio, Cadishead and Little Woolden Moss, Gallery Oldham, the John Rylands Library, Dunham Massey, Lindow Moss, Castlefield Viaduct, Gallery Oldham and The Atkinson; and a group exhibition and events programme at Rogue Studios.
Castlefield Gallery continues to provide admin and co-ordination support via its Artist Environmental Lead, Jane Lawson.
Image: still from The Entangled Forest (Nick Jordan)
