Week four at Padies. We continue to develop our performance pieces in the attic and work collaboratively with the Padies team towards a Finissage event on the last weekend of the residency. The event is a fantastic opportunity to do it all in one day! Incredible food, a luncheon with a group of people unfamiliar with our work – a performance piece which connects us with the audience and a homage to Padies – a wander in the garden to visit the bamboo installation – a power point presentation with German apple cake and coffee whereby we give the curious crowd further insight into our processes and previous works – a final glass of wine or two and great conversation in the beautiful dining area at the chateau. Thank you all! Our time at Padies was a really special, productive and an intensive time for our collaboration.

Edwards + Johann – artists and collaborators, Aotearoa New Zealand

Week two & three at Padies. We visited flee markets and vide greniers in the area to source materials and postcards for our performance pieces. We developed our characters and costumes and recorded further performative notations in the attic and the haystacks. We started a series of mad and anthropomorphic objects using Whytee hair and materials we found in and around Padies. We really got into the process of making….

Came across this in Architecture Week. I wish we could “unchop” trees – stop the madness!

Something we can do is plant – it might not make up for all the old growth that’s come down, but it does make a difference. We’ve planted 4000 trees / woody plants in the hedges here (that’s 4000 linear metres), and we encourage old hedges to re-grow. This in our own backyard of close to 17 hectares. Biodiversity grows year by year.

Some local farmers are replanting hedges as well – maybe encouraged by our actions….

Others………………continue to take them out!

Unfortunately, deforestation continues – but on a less spectacular scale – one tree at a time.

Week one of our residency at Padies. We immersed ourselves in the sights and sounds of the area in an attempt to connect. We recorded small performative notations and talked to the goats and chickens lots. Elaine and Denis made us feel so welcome and the shared luncheons and dinners introduced us to the delicious locally produced foods of the area. A time of exploration.