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Badlands Art Department invites you to join a collective and immersive investigation of our ancient mud, rich in healing bentonite, led by artist-in-residence Lucy Pawlak. Lucy’s studio at B.A.D. will be open for viewing. Meanwhile, she will guide us to mudwatch and mudfeel, to press our feet into muddy underground horizons, to touch “the hidden, secret friend, which is the root domain of lively darkness and silence.” (Francis D. Hole, pedologist)

Mud is loam, silt or clay; moist, sludgy and indifferent. It’s a mixture of water and trillions of ground-down, worn-down particles–all sorts of rocks and organic matters–a pulverized cacophony of thoughts made by the earth over eons. Mud’s arrival facilitates life’s explosions and authors its destructions through layers of endless groundings and unmoorings. Mud, the abode of worms, snails, frogs and toads. The sanctuary of wallowing creatures. Mud, a place to cool the blood. A place to heal. A place to embed emotions. Touching it might be a kind of prayer, and yet, do not linger too long there in the mud, for pressure will return it to a state of stone.

Lucy Pawlak is a screenwriter and visual artist focused on improvisation, eccentricity and play. She works with a variety of mediums to create an array of “odd”, temporary, small ‘topias – vehicles for critical thinking, collaborative research and informal exploration of wayward, wandering, or deviant flow states. Lucy has taught visual art and film studies in Mexico City over the past 13 years at various institutions, including Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad Iberoamericana, and Quiroz Cuaron Youth Detention Centre. Her scripts have premiered in over 60 international film festivals, and she won a Mexican Academy Award for best original screenplay alongside co-writer Joaquin del Paso for “Maquinaria Panamericana”. Lucy studied Painting at the Royal College of Art, and Cinematography at the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School.

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