Throughout her residency, Vivian Ross-Smith developed a site-specific project engaging LGBTQIA+ communities with secretive, often overlooked and unloved species living between urban and rural environments in the Swansea Bay area of South Wales.

The project explored the intersections of art, ecology, and queer resilience, with Vivian’s research focusing on the Fen Raft Spider and one of its key habitats, Crymlyn Bog. Through performance-led workshops and gatherings, she invited queer communities to reflect on the bog’s ability to survive despite its violent history - having been bombed during WWII and now surrounded by landfill, an Amazon warehouse, and residential developments. Crymlyn Bog sits on the outskirts of Swansea and, despite its vast size, important history, and ecological importance, many local residents remain unaware of its existence. Crymlyn is currently oversaturated, and restoration efforts are focused on encouraging water to leave the site.

The Fen Raft Spider, covered in hydrophobic hairs, is able to float on water and persist within Crymlyn’s water-logged environment. In recent years, concentrated efforts to boost the Fen Raft Spider population have led to sensationalist media coverage, with headlines exaggerating its size and portraying it as an invasive threat. Vivian’s research draws parallels between the divisive and damaging language used to describe a species simply trying to exist and the queer-phobic, trans-hating narratives frequently seen in media and politics.

Framing the misunderstanding and mistreatment of both this secretive species and its habitat as metaphors for queer resilience and empowerment, Vivian explores themes of interspecies care, belonging, and community in times of oversaturation.

About: Vivian Ross-Smith is an artist who creates performance, installation and textiles to explore a sensual, tactile engagement with care and ecology. Her touchable, often wearable works explore notions of comfort, pleasure, and disgust in the body. Vivian draws on queering practices and reflects on her islander identity, as well as her background in social care work. Her multi-sensory practice is rooted in place-based, community-building collaboration. Playing with embodied knowledge, she considers her work an offering to the viewer, exploring themes of generosity and reciprocity.

Born in Edinburgh and raised in Fair Isle, Shetland, Vivian holds a BA(Hons) from Gray’s School of Art (2013) and a Masters with Distinction from Glasgow School of Art (2020). She was the inaugural Freelands Studio Fellow at Swansea College of Art (2023).

This work was commissioned as part of the Natur Am Byth! project by Cyfoeth Naturiol Cymru.