The Kuranui Project

The Kuranui Project is a collaboration between artists Emma Cowan and Sarah Nicholson of Wild Studio, and Kuranui Bay, a small beach reserve on the outskirts of Thames.

At the heart of this project are the questions we keep returning to: 
What is possible with what we have available to us?  How can we engage creatively with the places where we live?

The intention was to create a collection of art materials using what could be readily foraged from along the seashore. We worked with what was in excess, or already given up: washed up roots, stems, bark and driftwood, fallen tree sap and feathers, salt water, iron sand and abundant weed species.

Transformed by fire, knife and hand, these raw materials became an array of unique art materials with which to experiment. These wild colours and tools, each have their own character. Less predictable than store-bought supplies, they invite us to be present to what each material is doing, to what is alive and possible in this moment, with this tool, this ink, this hand. In this way, the art making becomes a conversation rather than a transcription, allowing the place itself to have a tactile influence on our work.