Have you ever wondered what happens when you return to a place over time and observe the everyday, the elusive, and the poetic? How does this process shape both you and the work you make? For the past ten years, I have thought of Wytham Woods as an open-air studio. I have been fortunate to visit regularly, gradually venturing into their less travelled corners, and as my fear of getting lost faded, curiosity led me to seek the experience on purpose. Over time, this has led to many chance encounters: scientists at work, wild animals, and the occasional sighting of the conservator driving through the woods, often stopping for a brief chat.

WOODS combines my visual art background with an exploration of materials and processes. It grew from play and experimentation and seeks to capture the experience of the woods while reflecting my connection with nature. Land Art, Arte Povera, and Social Sculpture, which view art as socially and environmentally engaged, along with Bachelard, Solnit, and Merleau-Ponty, who explore how we move through and relate to the world, have shaped my approach. I use my phone as a camera, and movement as a method. Walking is central to my process, and my body forms the framework that shapes and scales my engagement with the woods. During my many walks, I came across scenes that stopped me in my tracks: light on water, a fallen tree, a clearing. These moments held both beauty and awe. Later, I found a purpose for these traditional, almost monumental images of the woods.

In 'A walk with Karolina' part of the WALKS series, the sublime appears disrupted, scarred by fire to evoke climate change, splashed with colour as a gesture of protest, or damaged by light fogging. Over the summer of 2024, I invited friends and fellow artists to join me in the woods. This made walking, both as a process and a form, a more integral part of my project and introduced an intimate, social dimension through engaging conversations. I recorded my observations from memory immediately afterwards.

The series WALKS reflects on environmental and social crises while exploring our capacity for creativity, abstract thought and flow. Each walk builds on these exchanges and links the different series together through movement and reflection. STAR revisits the fundamentals of image-making, at once reimaging and reimagining the woods. THE MEASURE OF THE WORLD and IN BETWEEN explore forces like gravity and wind, along with their metaphors of connection and impermanence. LIGHT and RAIN capture transient, sensory-rich geophysical events, while FIRE preserves accidental traces and marks found in the woods. Like these woods, art is a space within a space, unique and precious; it is a way to find wonder in a controlled and predictable world. It is a connection with people whose ideas and creativity shape how I live and work. Each visitor experiences Wytham Woods from a unique perspective. With this work, I am sharing mine.

for an up-to-date CV contact magaesberg@gmail.com