The ‘Re-Imagining Hilbre’ Workshops
Sharing cartographies of Hilbre Island
On the workshops ‘Re-Imagining Hilbre’ (April 2025), visitors to the island were invited to take part in the deep mapping of Hilbre. By observing, touching and recording what people see on the sandstone formations and then adding their own interpretations they were able to relate to what they see in a more profound and personal way.
The methods used to explore the geomorphology were methods I have used myself as an artist since my early explorations of Hilbre. Attendees to the workshops were invited to sketch/draw/do rock rubbings with pastels and charcoals/ do some clay modelling/take a few notes of what we see. The purpose of doing this was to invite people to create their own impression of the geomorphology and also to give them the opportunity to make sense of what they gathered.
At the end of the workshops, everyone was encouraged to create a collage together or individually. All these creative contributions created a sense of shared cartography, a way of mapping that is boundary free.
Deep mapping as a tool to enable shared cartographies
Deep maps are an experimental way of recording and making visible what is usually overlooked within a landscape. They are a way of connecting disparate thoughts/elements/ways of thinking through the use of different materials by both amateurs and professionals – the level of expertise in one are is irrelevant. Deep maps are focused on the land and the landscape; on the accountable layering of stories. These stories can be shaped by one person or many. There are no set rules.
Deep maps are unstable, fragile and temporary. They are a conversation and not a statement.
By embracing the fragility of the landscape, you allow yourself to become unstable in the security of a combined focus with others.
Feedback from attendees
A total of 14 people attended the workshops, here is some of the very positive feedback:
I hadn't thought about recording the landscape before, but to be able to just create and capture your feelings about a space or a place felt good. Its about capturing without being pretentious. That's the purpose. The drawing part has been good because I've come on a few times, I've photographed, but actually, when you're drawing, you have to really look. It was about making sure you look at the rock formations much more than I've done in the past. Doing it as a group was great.
- Feedback from attendee to workshop on 26.04.25
One of the things I fond fascinating was the different emotional reactions to the sense that the islands will disappear. It's inevitable. It's part of a continuing natural process of change. The very things that we're looking at are there because of past changes of greater magnitude, even than those that we'll see in our lifetime. But some feel a sense of loss, others feel a sense of awe, and others feel a sense of wonder and beauty, very mixed emotions. Changing landforms, the cliffs, the weathering, the differential weathering, the way the plants colonise on it. It's fabulous to celebrate that ever-changing scene. I I just find it an inspirational place to come to from that point of view because it is different to how I knew it when I first moved to Wirral in the mid-1980s.
- Feedback from attendee to workshop on 26.04.25
I felt the day moving around the island and being able to just slowing down, to observe. I was really conscious of of the life force that has formed it all. It's all about movement. All the strata, is all about movement. It was formed by movement, and it is actually moving. So even though the day was really still, you really got that sense of force and movement as you're walking around just observing things. So that juxtaposition was really interesting, just playing with your mind a little bit.
- Feedback from attendee to workshop on 26.04.25
Connecting with Hilbre from a different, artistic, perspective because I have such an emotional connection to the island, I felt like I got to know her on a deeper level. I also really enjoyed sharing knowledge and ideas with a supportive and interesting group of people.
- Feedback from attendee to workshop on 06.04.25
I enjoyed sketching the rock strata, form and texture and thinking about the extension of time and place when thinking about Hilbre's evolution as well as people's emotional connection with the islands.
- Feedback from attendee to workshop on 06.04.25
All the creative contributions from the workshops have been added to the SSHI book of Hilbre Island (Site of Special Human Interconnectedness). Read more about Hilbre as an SSHI here, access the book here.
