A  Filming day for  "Ofrendas" 

'Ofrendas' is a short film which will be shown before  A Walk with Shrines at The Margate Bookie on Saturday September 29th at 10.30 a.m. at Turner Contemporary, as a part of The Margate Bookie.

A Walk with Shrines  aims to take participants on a journey through books, poetry, Margate and the passion and following these engender. 

The books :

Madonna of the Mountains (Elise Valmorbida)
Marching on Together  (Philip Whitely)
The Hoarder (Jess Kidd0 
Transitions Poetry (Owen Lowery)

At selected spots in Margate books will be introduced and then a small shrine will be built and marked with offerings made by contributing artists and community members .



In this way we will take a moment to express our gratitude to the authors, their books and Margate for the community and the difference this collaborative engagement can make to our lives. 






Artists,  makers  and creators: 

Sonia Overall, Sharon Rowe, Laura Sawyer, Sara Trillo , Deb Jackson , Maggy Rodd, Elaina Arkeooll Virginia Fitch, Diana Lane .







The event will include a short film, screened at the Turner about the process used in creating this walk.






This will include footage of items sent by and emails exchanged with selected authors who contributed to the making of the shrines.

 It will also include footage of the artists and members of the community who have been involved in creating offerings (ofrendas) for the shrines.

Here some photos of the making of the film.    We are still working on it and will be filming and recording in Margate on Wednesday, but I thought it would be fun to share some of the process with you.

The film will be followed by a walk, lasting one and a half hours, stopping at selected spots in Margate which will be mostly over flat terrain. The shrines will be built at selected locations which we feel connect with the four chosen books and authors. Small devotional offerings will then be placed, these can be material or performative. The shrines will be photographed and dismantled as part of this pilgrimage around Margate.



With thanks to Anna Bowman  for filming

Photography by Anastasia Miller

We hope you will be able to join us :This event is free but ticketed here


'As with pilgrimage it is the process of travelling , rather than the destination , which is crucial ; this is , like  the back to back repeat projection of a single film programme, a 'Continuous Performance'.

(Dorothy Richardson and The Haptic Reader , in Haptic Modernism by abbie garrington

Weaving the walk

@  #4Wcop  (the Fourth World Congress of Psychogeography)

A fab invitation from Sonia Overall, to become her Ariadne, led me to 4Wcop in Huddersfield on the 7th and 8th of September .

Huddersfield canal , I love a houseboat!

 Here are some images of the Vara* weaving the experience of Treading and Threading the Labyrinth.

(* Vara  a staff of office which illustrates a semiosis that is very different from "writing proper"- as described by Frank Solomon in The Cord Keepers)

The Vara holds the ropes which I make by hand in my studio which are then knotted by fellow walkers who then return the ropes to me so that I can create a record of their participation in the walk.

Each of these varas has woven into it the ropes from particular walks I have led over the last four years. More about these can be found on my website and in previous blog postings.

The Story for #4Wcop

We had 16 walkers from the World Congress who came to Slaithwate (Slawit) to walk our  textile Labyrinth, made by hand in the beautiful Colne Valley.

The textile Labyrinth had particular significance as the valley used to be the site of rows of textile mills, all pumping smoke into the air (no trees grew due to the acid rain)  and dye into the river which flowed past our site.

materials from the Work and Play Scrapstore 

It seemed fitting that some of our textiles for constructing the Labyrinth had been gathered from  The Work and Play Scrastore , and recycled into our Labyrinth.

I reflected on this as we heard about the history of the area from Michael who, with Helen, welcomed us at Slaithewate Forest school .

With thanks to Helen for wonderful warming cups of tea and also sharing her knowledge of the aboriginal art of making rope.












The Baltic wheel  Labyrinth,  with vague terrain obstructions as designed by Sonia Overall.

Much measuring calculating and designing was followed by a quick assessment of the site and the joy of working with the terrain. We loved those trees almost waiting for our labyrinth to be installed



With thanks to all who attended and walked with us and in particular the Congress Central Committee.

Margate Bookie and The Margate Festival 

 I am now looking forward to taking our #4Wcop Vara , along with nine other Varas from previous walks over the last four years, to our Thread and Word performative walk "Walk with Shrines" on September 29th detail are on  Margate Bookie Program .

Free but ticketed on eventbrite:Walk with Shrines, tickets