We Are the Bog

Bodies, peat and deep time ……….

Peatlands are places where time gathers. Beneath the surface, layers of moss, water and earth slowly hold the traces of centuries of life. We Are the Bog explores these landscapes as living archives, where memory, myth and ecology meet.

Working directly in the moorland, members of Curlew Collective place textiles and surfaces into the bog, allowing water, soil and weather to leave their marks. These materials are later transformed into sculptural “bog spirits” — breathing textile forms that suggest the hidden presence of life beneath the peat. Alongside these sculptures, drawings and textile works emerge from natural traces gathered in the landscape.

Created by a group of older women artists returning to the moor, the project reflects on the parallels between ageing bodies and peatlands themselves — both shaped by time, memory and slow transformation.

The work begins in the landscape. Blank canvases and garments are taken out onto the moor and placed directly into the bog — submerged in peat water, buried in moss, or left exposed to weather and time. The land itself becomes a collaborator, marking the materials with iron-rich stains, traces of plants, insects and mud. What returns from the bog carries the imprint of the place.

These transformed textiles become the starting point for the Bog Spirits. The artists work back into the materials through stitching, drawing and repair, following the shapes and marks left by the landscape to reveal emerging forms. The spirits are neither human nor landscape, but something in between — presences that seem to rise slowly from the peat itself. Inflatable forms placed within the sculptures create a subtle breathing movement, suggesting the slow respiration of the bog and the living systems beneath the ground.

Alongside the sculptural work, the project also invites others to take part. Through a series of community workshops participants will create small textile pieces inspired by peatlands, wildlife and personal relationships with landscape. These pieces will be brought together to form The Bog Blanket, a collaborative quilt that reflects many voices and connections to the land.

Together these works explore peatlands as places where ecological knowledge, personal memory and myth meet — and where the slow processes of the earth mirror the transformations of our own lives.

We Are the Bog is an evolving process that unfolds slowly over time, shaped by the landscape itself. Throughout the project Curlew Collective will document field visits, experiments and the development of the Bog Spirits as they emerge from the peat-stained materials.

We will share these Field Notes through the website, offering glimpses of the landscape, the making process and the discoveries that happen along the way. Information about Bog Blanket workshops and future exhibitions will also be shared here.

If you would like to follow the project or hear about upcoming events please contact the collective.