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.

Glacial Procession

Glacial Procession is an invitation to reawaken slow ways of moving, and consider how this most basic relationship of body to land has more broadly shaped our ways of thinking. – Yambe Tam

Following her stays at The Art Depot, Yambe returned to her own studio and spent time creating five sculptural walking staffs, each one representing an important ecological link in the region’s geological history: glacier, limestone, river, plant, and animal.

Glacial Procession was the conclusion of Yambe Tam's Artist Residency with Chrysalis Arts Development in 2023. 

In September 2023, Yambe lead a procession of local North Yorkshire artists through the Yorkshire Dales. The path traced the ancient movements of ice, water, and stone.  The staffs were inspired by shakujo, Buddhist walking staffs used during travel and pilgrimage in ancient times. The five staff carrying figures followed the order of the ecological succession they appeared in the landscape, connecting geological and human scales of time.

Halfway through the procession, there was a meditation in nature where participants reflected on questions of efficiency, sustainability, time, desire, and energy.

Interview

Following her residency, Yambe spoke with two of the Chrysalis Arts Development Non-Executive Directors about her experience and the impact it’s had on her artist practice. 

Thank you to Yambe Tam, Sara Trentham-Black and Helen Turner.

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

Funders

A special thank you to the project funders Arts Council England.

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Image Credits: All artwork is credited to Yambe Tam.