Join us at Chelsea Physic Garden this spring for a special workshop as part of our A Dash of Lavender programme and Folklore ReRooted theme.

In this two hour workshop, you will explore queer ecology, with the playful and deeply attentive spirit of Derek Jarman as our guide. Together we will approach the Garden as a living temple.

‘Sun a pure white globe in a chalky sky, mist blowing across the Ness in milky veils, silent pussy willow woods the palest pastel yellow luminous in the silvery light.’ Modern Nature by Derek Jarman.

What does it mean to ignore boundaries and collaborate freely with all that grows around us? When we give our full attention and forget what we’ve been told, how does it transform our relationship to a garden? Let’s take a slow stroll together and give time to the vital art of noticing.

Through a mixture of creative prompts, poetry and creative writing exercises, participants will be invited to explore the Garden through a queer lens. These responses will be woven into hagstone talismans, using a mixture of local seasonal materials and hagstones borrowed from the south coast near to Dungeness. 

Through the ritual of weaving our talismans or Tallis-hags as we like to call them, we will explore the hagstone’s rich folkloric roots. At once portals to pass to other dimensions, eyeglasses to see things as they really are (not as we desire them to be) and as empowering and protective south coast amulet for collective and personal resistance…

Walking Trees Collective Bio
Walking Trees Collective was co-founded by artist-educators Sophie Hughes and Finlay Forbes Gower, who met while studying for an MA in Art & Ecology at Goldsmiths. Since 2022, they have facilitated community-centered outdoor gatherings across London and beyond, exploring the ecologies of green spaces and waterways. Using art as a tool for imagination and collective inquiry, these gatherings invite participants to re-think how we relate to our environments whilst engaging with the pressing ecological questions of our time.

Each gathering responds to the historical, social and ecological contexts of its site. Through shared, guided prompts such as meditation, drawing, poetry, journaling and movement, participants are encouraged to cultivate deeper, more attentive connections with one another and with all that is growing and flowing around them.