During the Flock Project exhibition at Lewisham Arthouse, we held a talk event which had an emotional moment when members of the Grounding Project spoke about their experience of the project. Here are their words and those of others which were read out to the audience.

“Making birds helps with my concentration. I feel relaxed without knowing it, while making the birds. I learned new skills and also had new experiences by visiting the museum. Although the museum was packed with people, it helped me with my mood and helped me to trust people.”

KS

“For me it has been like therapy. Torture makes you silent, but making birds helps me to renounce my silence. Making bird’s together means we are united. We speak different languages, are form different cultures and different nations – but here we are one. We are in the same boat together.

I love to learn new things like bird-craft and I love birds because they can fly free. As a torture survivor, we can do what we want because of this project.”

YM

“Making birds reminds me of being back home. When we were small, we made things like birds out of clay. We used to get clay from the ground and then it became soft. The programme was interesting, we were together and it taught us things we didn’t know. It was an advantage to see different kind of birds, unlike what I normally see in London. This got me excited about nature.”

RL

“First of all to thank Julie for her hard work and introducing us to work with clay. I really found it interesting, relaxing - I really enjoyed it. Just to be able to use a piece of clay and use Julie’s instructions to make birds - and quite successfully! It was just relaxing and peaceful. Like me, and the clay, and trying to make a bird.

Birds are freedom. Like my pigeons, they would go and come back. Making those birds brings back nice memories of my birds.

It was a nice, friendly, relaxing atmosphere. Everyone was warm to Julie and each other. It was really good. She wants to bring people together and she did that here.”

NP