‘Walking is about freeing us from our fixity to a standpoint so that we can be more responsive to others and to places in their development.’ (Norman Wirzba)
Jonathan Baxter began his residency in 2020 with a year spent walking in Craigmillar and talking with local residents. With an initial research interest in the work of the Craigmillar Festival Society (CFS), Jonathan was particularly interested in the work that Craigmillar Now were doing to catalogue the CFS archive. With this work already underway, and other projects exploring similar territory, Jonathan decided to refocus his energy on the wider ecology of Craigmillar. Specifically, the meshwork of pathways that traverse Craigmillar – human and more-than-human, present and absent, placed and displaced.
To date this enquiry has led to the following projects:
2021: Line Walk Mindful Drawing
Line Walk Mindful Drawing was a year-long engagement with Little France Park. Walkers met on the first Saturday of the month from January to December 2021 to walk the same path, there and back, for an hour in both directions. The walk included an invitation to walk in mindful silence and to pause on occasion to make a drawing. Drawings included drawing breath, taking a photograph, writing a poem, drawing in a sketch book, and responsive movement. The aim of the walk was to deepen our engagement with Little Park France and to observe the changing seasons within our own lives.
Outcomes of the project were exhibited at the 2021 and 2022 Art Walk Porty Festival and an illustrative bookwork and 12-postcard set was also published. James Spence, a regular walker, also published a collection of haiku poetry responding to the walk.
2022 (ongoing): Wee Forest
Working in collaboration with Edinburgh & Lothians Greenspace Trust (ELGT), Jonathan has been actively involved in planting and maintaining a Wee Forest in Peacocktail Close.
Wee Forests are part of the global family of ‘Miyawaki Forests’ or ‘Tiny Forests’ found all over the world. They’re small, tennis court-sized woodlands that help mitigate the effects of climate change, support urban wildlife and reconnect people with nature.
Jonathan’s involvement has included community engagement to develop the site, planting the trees with local residents, follow-up maintenance and care activity, primary school engagement through citizen science (led by ELGT), and building benches to support outdoor learning (in collaboration with Action for Children, Bridgend Farmhouse and ELGT).
2022 (ongoing): Walking in the Footsteps of Time
Walking in the Footsteps of Time is the overall title for a more dispersed field of activity including community walks, photographic documentation, engagement with the Craigmillar Arts, Culture and Heritage Trail (CACHT), and local litter picks.
Outcomes have included a day-long walking programme for the 2022 Craigmillar and Niddrie Community Festival. The programme was inspired by CFS and asked people to consider three questions: Where do we come from? Who are we? Where are we going? It included a community parade, a foraging walk, a deep time walk, and a woodland installation. Collaborators included Bridgend Farmhouse, ELGT, Alistair McGowan (geologist, palaeontologist and natural historian), and artists from Mutual Studios, Craigmillar.
Jonathan also maintains an ongoing dialogue with City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) focused on the maintenance and care of three local ‘monuments’ originally included in CACHT: Niddrie Standing Stone, Gulliver Play Sculpture (now reduced to a single ‘foot’) and A Monument to an Unknown Baby (also known as Baby Craig Millar Memorial).
For more information about the day-long walking programme see here. For updates about Jonathan’s engagement with CEC watch this space.
Key community collaborators have included Miranda Baird, Michael Inman, Stuart Keiller, and Laura McNamee.
2023: Braid Walk
Developing ideas explored in Line Walk Mindful Drawing (LWMD), and working in collaboration with some of the LWMD participants – specifically, Helen Boden (writing) Sarah Gittins (drawing) and James Spence (haiku poetry) –Braid Walk was an invitation to walk from mouth to source along three adjoining burns: Figgate, Braid and Bonaly. The walk took its inspiration from a Taoist understanding of the Watercourse Way (or Tao) and explored braiding as a metaphor for how to bring multiple ways of knowing together in a respectful manner. The walk asked participants to consider how walking a watercourse might inform their engagement with the climate and ecological crisis.
Outcomes of the project were shared at the 2023 Art Walk Porty Festival and the project was featured in Art Walk Projects’ Art Walk Journal Issue 2, Autumn 2024. A final Braid Walk publication is currently underway.
2024 (ongoing): 5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems
5 walks, 5 trees, 5 poems sees Jonathan returning to the woodlands of Craigmillar Castle Park for five autumnal walks. Participants are invited to learn more about the ecology of woodlands and the ethics they engender. Periods of mindful silence, drawing and poetry will punctuate the walks.
As with previous AWP projects, a final publication will document the process and include selected drawings and poetry by the participants.
This project builds on earlier collaborations with Bridgend Farmhouse, ELGT and includes drawing workshops with Sarah Gittins.
2025 (pending): Brick Walk
‘The walker’s attention comes not from having arrived at a position but from being pulled away from it, from displacement.’ (Tim Ingold)
More details to follow – subject to funding.
Jonathan Baxter is an ‘artist and …’ He works across disciplines – both art and non-art related – using psychoanalytic methodologies and performative practices to variously open up, challenge and propose what is. Since 2009 Jonathan has combined the roles of artist, curator and peer-educator to deliver a series of participatory art projects and peer-learning programmes.
To contact Jonathan directly please email jb4change[at]gmail.com.
All enquiries are welcome. Collaboration is encouraged.