FOREST, STONE, FLESH:
SPECTRAL TRACES AND BODILY ARCHIVES

Short Film by Nella Piatek and Melissa Schwarz
2025

Project created as part of the Mayes Creative Residency: Creative Inspiration From An Ancient Landscape funded by the Lottery Fund.

Credits:

Travellers:
Melissa Schwarz and Nella Piatek

Poetry:
Melissa Schwarz and Nella Piatek

Cinematography and Editing:
Nella Piatek

Exhibited at:

‘In/Human Infrastructures: A 3 day Symposium by Xeno Futurism’ organised by Xenofuturism and Gossamerfog and curated by Elliott Higgs at Alt_R, London United Kingdom, May 22-24th 2026

‘Groweb Sed’ organised by Cathartic Collective at SHAPES Lewisham, London UK, May 1-3rd 2026

‘Performing Ecofeminism’ 9th Edition of the International Women’s Theatre Festival Frankfurt (Frauen Theaterfestival) organised by Pandora Box and curated by Edith van den Elzen at Feminists Future Gallery, Frankfurt Germany, September 22-29th 2025

Forest, Stone, Flesh is an eco-feminist journey across the mythical sites of Dartmoor National Park in Cornwall. Through the process of anarchiving, the body is used as a material to access histories and to activate the few locations which carry myths that centre around women and slow violence. Anarchiving relates to the idea that sites can be understood as living archives; as such the film ‘re-animates’ local narratives to imagine alternative realities. The film is a ritual performance in which two travellers journey across the site’s past, present and future. Through the lenses of hauntology and post-humanist thought, the history and mythologies of the area are re-examined in connection to an eco-feminist approach.  

Forest, Stone, Flesh: Kitty Jay’s Grave



Forest, Stone, Flesh: Spinster’s Rock




Forest, Stone, Flesh: Wistman’s Woods