This Webpage has been made specifically for my application for Arts Council England's Research and Development for Individuals Grant. My general website is available here
Hi, I'm Christie Swallow - an Artist and Designer who crafts kinship between species, fosters solidarity through co-creation and encourages exchange through collaborative making.
My work engages with communities - both human and non-human - through artistic research, working through novel methodologies and hybridic disciplines.
The following sections cover:
If you click on the page's images, you will be shown a selection of other relevant imagery from that section.
Thank you for your consideration.
Why Foxes?
This project idea came to me around 1am, early September 2025, as a skulk of foxes approached me in Brunswick Park. As I sewed together large bolts of woolen fabric for an installation, they scurried away with my scraps. Frolicking together, they exchanged the wool, coming back to me for more.
What if we could learn from the Foxes' playful interactions, play with the foxes, and in turn play with outdated division of humans and nauture? As settlers in their ancestral land how can we equitably engage with foxes as stakeholders and stewards of the urban landscape?
Paracologies learns from the Rose-Ringed Parakeet to understand the emergent, artificial ecologies of the Anthropocene. The project asks how selective narratives about which species belong in certain geographies limit our imaginative responses to climate change, challenging outdated ideas of what is "native" and therefore "natural".
To explore these themes, you conduct "walkshops"guided walks exploring more-than-human perspectives in urban environments. Grounded in the urban landscape, these ephemeral, open-ended sessions encourage slow sensing and collective observation. Participants convene directly with parakeets through food, song, and care, ultimately becoming certified "Paracologists" who embrace the strange and wonderful urban ecologies of the city.
.jpeg)
My Fieldwork i aided by "Research Quilting," a live process of stitching archival information into a tactile mapping tool. By translating textual research into a familiar textile form, I move knowledge out of the archive and into physical, public space where it can be touched and felt. The patchwork resists academic editorialization, embracing tangents and myths, while highlighting that the idea of "natural" is itself an assemblage.
I specialise in "thinking-through-making," and my facilitation style empowers diverse participants - from researchers and policymakers to vulnerable groups and young people - as co-creators. By fostering inclusive, tactile learning spaces, I aim to articulate complex systems, document hidden community histories, and imagine post-anthropocentric futures.
