By Tom Hughes, Artist

I’m Tom Hughes; an artist and film maker working on The Woodland Cathedral for the Glow Badbury project. 

To familiarise myself with the history of and nature at Badbury Rings, I went on a field trip with local primary school children. Despite the visit being tailored to very young people, I learnt a lot on the trip and the children’s interest and enthusiasm was contagious. 

It was particularly inspiring to be on top of Badbury Rings when archaeologist Dave talked about the arrival of the Romans, who landed at Poole and infiltrated Badbury, which up until that point, would’ve seemed impenetrable. One could imagine seeing the distant red of the Romans as they made their way towards the Durotriges’ fort.

It was also interesting hearing Mark, the ranger from Kingston Lacy, talk about the abundant wildlife on the Rings and how they manage the area, as a watchful buzzard hovered above, looking for something to eat.

Sarah Butterworth (Creative Director of Emerald Ant and project lead) and I have recently spent a couple of days at Yewstock School making and filming shadow puppets, shadow costumes and bright coloured tissue paper creatures and flowers. So far, the footage we’ve captured has been a mixture of live-action interpretation on a giant shadow screen, hand operated shadow puppets and stop-frame animation using illuminated lightboxes. The textures, shapes, colours and movement of the artwork is really beautiful, and it’s been a joy working with the children at Yewstock.

I’m very much looking forward to working in Allenbourn School and adding the students’ contributions to the edit. So far, the visuals are bold and full of imagination, and I can’t wait to see the final piece projected amongst the trees!