Yambe's Visits to the Art Depot

Yambe began the residency exploring the areas surrounding Gargrave, and thinking about what she would like to create.

Early into her initial ten day stay in Gargrave, Yambe met with local Ecologist Mark Hewitt. Mark’s expertise in ecology has been hugely helpful to Chrysalis Arts. This past year he has been guiding and providing information to artists at our recently leased Marton Wood.

Yambe and Mark walked and explored the Malham area in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The night before their visit, the Dales received snow. Yambe described the visit as witnessing something special. They visited both Malham Cove and the waterfall Janet’s Foss, discussing the ecology of the park, the local farming industry and how it exists in relationship to the local wilderness.

Yambe then returned to work from her own studio to develop her ideas further.

Later in the Spring, Yambe returned for a second stay at The Art Depot. With a clearer focus for her project, she spent more time exploring the local area in relation tot he work she is creating.

What's Next

Yambe has been creating five sculptural walking staffs, each one representing an important ecological link in the region’s geological history: glacier, limestone, river, plant, and animal.

This July, Yambe will lead a procession of local North Yorkshire artists through the Yorkshire Dales. The path will trace the ancient movements of ice, water, and stone.  The staffs are inspired by shakujo, Buddhist walking staffs used during travel and pilgrimage in ancient times. The five staff carrying figures will follow the order of the ecological succession they appeared in the landscape, connecting geological and human scales of time.

The procession will end in a meditation in nature where participants will reflect on questions of efficiency, sustainability, time, desire, and energy.

More details to follow soon.

About Yambe

Yambe Tam is an artist and ordained Zen Buddhist creating contemplative experiences through sculpture, video games, and immersive installations.

These works meditate on the void and how conceptions of reality are constructed in humans and nonhumans, from microscopic to planetary scales. Often collaborating with creative technologists, sound designers, and scientific researchers, she builds interactive, immersive worlds that engage the senses in their primal instinct to explore and play.

'This residency is an opportunity to directly connect to a key source of inspiration underlying my practice: the natural world - more specifically, wilderness that has developed over planetary timescales that we can learn from and urgently need to protect. My hope is that through establishing closer relationships to the land, local people and communities, I will also encourage and accelerate the change needed to counter the climate crisis.' – Yambe Tam

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Image Credits: All credits to Yambe Tam.

Image 4–5: Work in Progress, 3D waxes which will be cast in glass for the staffs. The first one represents River, the second Glacier.