Urban Safari: Call For Cyclists

We’ve put out a call for guitarists. Now its you cyclists’ turn. How are you fixed Monday? Short notice, we know, but hey, it’s Monday - what else are you going to do? Go to work? Environmental artist Kerry Morrison has a better idea.

This Monday, 22 July, your presence is required at the Tate, between 10am - 1pm for her Counterculture, City Nature project.

In 2006 Kerry cycled the streets of Liverpool looking for liverpool’s wastelands. But wasteland isn’t exactly a word Morrison would use to describe the sites she encountered – which were brimming over with flora and fauna (she even saw a brown hare on one) doing all manner of things that support us, like cleaning our air and breaking down our crap.

“The word wasteland has such negative connotations - no longer useful, surplus to requirements, something to be discarded, of little of no value. I don’t see the so-called wastelands as empty spaces awaiting redevelopment, but as temporary life supporting wonder-lands,” she says.

And don’t just take Kerry’s word for it: “there are some fantastic wild areas in the city. Two summers ago I stopped to look at the empty site next to what’s now Tribeca on Smithdown Road. I began to realise that I’d never seen such an enormous diversity of plants in such a small place. And flowers of every hue. The whole thing was literally buzzing with life, it was fabulous - and all on a main road…” was one suitably awe-inspired comment left on her flickr site by a liverpool photographer

Six years down the line Kerry’s going to be retracing her tracks; once again hunting out unmanaged pockets of land where nature is taking root; and assessing them for their value for experiencing wild and untamed nature in all its unexpected glory.

But this time she won’t be a lone cyclist. A small team will take to the streets, on bikes, in search of wildlife thriving in our city unabashed by the toiling and restless city that surrounds it.

The Counterculture nature expedition begins on 18th August and runs for three consecutive weekends. What is discovered will be looked at in relation to what Kerry discovered in 2006, and combined will result in the UK’s largest study on city ‘wastelands’. Perhaps the only waste is that not enough of us take advantage of, or are able to take advantage of: the resilient, yet vulnerable counterculture nature on our doorstep.

If you would like to be a part of the counterculture nature team and take to the streets on a bicycle (courtesy of Liverpool Cycle projects), please contact Kerry (with your contact details) to book a place on the training day at Tate Liverpool. Monday, 23rd July, 10.00am – 1.00pm.

Oh, and did we mention – each team member will have a tree in a pot attached to their bike!

Counterculture nature: http://natureexposed.tumblr.com/intros

Contact Kerry: http://natureexposed.tumblr.com/ask