From May to October 2024, Robbie and Jo explored the pathways of the middle section of the River Tweed as artists in residence with Connecting Threads, the cultural strand of Destination Tweed. Their research area was ‘walking’ – how we encounter the world on foot. They wanted to look deeply into something most of us take for granted and to share and shape their investigations with the people that they met on the way.

On one of their walks by the river they found an intriguing object – an old, weathered envelope. It was empty, with one word written in faded blue biro on the front: ‘Babe’. The envelope fascinated them. What message was in it? Why was it left just there on the path by the river? Who wrote it? And of course, who is ‘Babe’?

They initiated the ‘Lost Letters’ project inviting member of the public and writers’ groups to contribute a letter addressed to ‘Babe’ and also invited people to join them at the site where the letter was found to pen a contribution. The project invited collective reflection on memory, loss, and the river as a keeper of stories and became a creative device for generating new emotional and cultural relationships with the Tweed.

The call out for letters had a great response and the artists created a pop up riverside installation at Boleside (where the letter was found) and at Kelso, where passers-by were able to enjoy the illicit thrill of opening the envelopes and reading the personal messages. The letters were of all kinds; heart rending, humorous, apocalyptic, angry, loving…
Many of the letters explored the river and its wildlife and pathways and in this way became a methodology for creating new cultural responses, reflections and connections to the Tweed.

Above: The envelope and images of the writing workshop where the envelope was found.

Above: The Babe installation

Above: Many trees by The Tweed have messages and initials carved into them – another way of sending messages. The carvings grow into the future as the tree grows. The heart carved into a tree along one of the riverside paths was made into a repeating digital design and printed onto canvas. the canvas was used on the chairs in the Babe installation.

For other work on the (un)trodden paths residency see:
Pollinator Pathways
Micro-Utopias
LADEN
Glimpses of Utopia

Paths research documentation: https://colemanhodges.com/trodden-paths/

Categories: 2024, Community Engagement, Environmental, Installation, Interactive, Participatory, Process, Strategy