The Ground is Singing: The Printing Room Issue 2

Writers

Exodus Crooks (they/them) is a British-Jamaican multidisciplinary artist and educator, interested in self-determination and how it is steered by religion and spirituality. Their practice is auto ethnographical and exists in the orbit of their educational role where they work to reimagine Western pedagogy. Their art is research focused and follows the lead of the many radical Caribbean writers and thinkers advocating for indigenous ways of living. Exodus is currently experimenting with gardening, text, filmmaking, and installation to better understand indigenous thought and tend to the breaks that occur in the human experience.

Billy Haynes (he/him) is a writer, artist and musician from Wolverhampton. He blends sharp observation with myth and the uncanny to pose questions about how we might create or discover meaning in an uncertain age. Past works include ‘Common Land’ (2024), a multimedia piece including a soundscape, a shrine, and plantings of fruit trees, bushes and herbs in an underpass, and the discography of cult indie band The Calamity. He is currently working on ‘Folktales’, a series of short stories, and ‘The Book of the Witch Doctor’, a novel.

Laura Onions (she/her) has a printmaking practice that adopts sculptural, painterly and social forms to hold and share spaces for learning. The manoeuvres of printmaking (contact, transference, intimacy) underline these activities in which a focus on making together have emerged as her approach. Laura works with local archives to connect with place and offer a framework to respond and reimagine. She is thinking about ecologies and inherited landscapes through these means.

Lorna Rose (she/her) is an actor, poet and novelist. She has worked with Black Country Touring, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust and toured with Apples and Snakes. Her debut poetry collection ‘Caterpillar Soup’ is out now with Verve Poetry Press. She has three autobiographical solo shows under her belt and has a play, a poetry collect

Abigail Villarroel (he/they) is a Venezuelan-born artist and writer whose work explores the complexities of queer immigrant identity. Raised in Venezuela and Qatar, Abigail’s art reflects his diasporic experience, blending themes of identity, nature, and displacement. His practice includes figurative and non-figurative work, often influenced by the male form, diaspora/memory/family, Venezuelan culture and his love for nature. Abigail uses a range of mediums such as acrylics, dry and liquid techniques, to create pieces that reflect a fusion of his queer gaze and cultural heritage. His art is in constant dialogue with his poetry and personal essay work.

Co-editor

Cathy Wade is an artist and writer who investigates how practice can be created and distributed in collaborative partnerships and through the creation of commons. Their work seeks to understand the experience of contemporary conditions through direct exchange with others. They are course leader for MA in Arts Education Practices at BCU; alongside facilitating Vivid Projects focus on long-term artist development.