Counter-archive, translation, and at times untranslatability, become the driving force of the selection of archive materials. Forging new ways of communication transcends the linguistic to the sensory, visual, and emotional. The experiences that emanate through esea contemporary’s oral archives present unspoken hardships of not only navigating modes of communication, but also of finding and creating community in unfamiliar territories. Surfacing these stories allows us to consider how the archive can function as a dialogical space in the present, where it lives and breathes as a part of our everyday experience. Here, to empathise becomes a disciplined practice of learning and unlearning, as well as repositioning oneself within the shifting conditions of the environment.

Sarah Marsh is a Manchester-based creative practitioner, artist, designer and consultant for play, with a passion for textiles, sculpture and hand-made processes. She has many years experience of creating award-winning, sensory-inspired and child-led environments for play and learning, in a variety of internationally renowned cultural settings across the UK and Europe. Sarah’s most recent commissions include; ’Sculpting Conversations’ at Whitechapel Gallery, London (Summer 2023) and ’North Light’ (Art in Manufacturing), The National Festival of Making, Blackburn (July 2023), as part of her HoLD collective. She is currently working on commissions with Tate Britain, Dulwich Picture Gallery, The Whitworth and York Art Gallery. Sarah is an artist whose practice is sensory-led; often working with neurodivergent communities and SEND audiences to create tactile and multi-sensory environments and objects, where design has evolved through observation and interaction. Sarah makes, to understand.

After leaving University of Salford, Sarah worked with the Chinese Arts Centre (2003) in various capacities, including technician, administrator, and freelance project coordinator. Sarah went on to travel extensively through China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, South Korea and Japan — an experience that has greatly impacted her creative practice. Her time in Shanghai, informed the look and feel of The Sensory Toolkit; dumpling-esque therapeutic holding objects; her use and passion of fabrics; and the shapes and forms found in architecture and nature all around her.

This site-specific installation is part of esea contemporary's Summer Programme ‘From (Counter-)Archives to Activation.’