Two weeks residency at Highcross House during the heatwave of summer 2022. Record high temperatures caused fields to turn brittle, streams to run dry and skies to streak with magenta and turquoise. A curious haze and malaise settles on the air as skies empty of birds and all living things seek shelter in the shade. 

The work unfolds around the idea of the familiar become strange, the known become unknown and the local become remote. Highcross House was built for the first headmaster of Dartington school and his wife Ena, who arrived in Devon from California. The heatwave bathed the landscape in brilliant sunlight- bleaching soft colours and punching the landscape with unexpected vibrant hues- if Ena had been with us then perhaps she would have felt at home atlast? In reality, Ena's life at Highcross was lonely and plagued by her husband's infidelity- conducted in the school buildings in plain sight of this terrace and her bedroom window. Working with locally sourced wool, dyed by plants and raspberries from my garden, I wove Ena a tapestry of the view from the balcony in California colours - an alternative view from a place of compassion and care.