Sara Trillo + Flora Parrott

29-30 September 2026
11 – 4pm
Open School East

“Before the tool that forces energy outward, we made the tool that brings energy home”

Ursula K. Le Guin, The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, 1986.

Following a group reading of Ursula Le Guin’s short text A Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction, artists Sara Trillo and Flora Parrott invited the Associate cohort to explore the key themes of the text, and ways in which artists foster community and share knowledge.

Over the two days, the group walked around Margate to find and forage materials, while also bringing materials of their own to use. Together, they made and tested their own vessels, exploring the processes of gathering, carrying, and holding through making.

At the end of the workshop, the group brought the vessels together to create an armature-like installation and reflected on the project collectively.

Flora Parrott is an artist based in Kent working in sculpture, print and textiles. Flora trained in Printmaking at both The Glasgow School of Art and The Royal College of Art. Her work explores interior landscapes of the body, thinking through unseen workings and sensations that occur under the skin. The work, often taking the form of tableau or 3-dimensional collage, uses natural forms and everyday objects and experiences to reimagine the mysteries of blurry ultrasound images, the insides of deep, dark pockets and the points at which inside meets outside. 

Flora is an Associate Lecturer in Print at the Royal College of Art and a post-doctoral researcher on the ERC funded project Think Deep based in the Geography Department at Royal Holloway University London. Recent exhibitions include ‘Hollow Earth’ with Hayward Touring and ‘Darkness Retreat’ commissioned by Legion Projects.

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Sara Trillo is a visual artist based in East Kent, with a studio in Margate. She was born in Ramsgate and has spent much of her life in Kent, developing a large archive of research about the history and mythologies of her native county. She studied Fine Art at Norwich University of the Arts and in 2017 became an Associate of Open School East in Margate. She has exhibited widely in the UK and northern Europe, as well as undertaking funded residencies in diverse locations including France, Germany, Cyprus and Turkey.

Sara explores landscapes through research, walking, and making, seeking to uncover hidden histories of the human presence within our shared ecological environment. Much of her recent work has been focussed on the Kent Downs landscape, with a particular interest in dene holes – deep shafts dug into chalk, of uncertain age and purpose.

This session is part of OSE’s two-year thematic cycle Home is where the garden is – find more events: openschooleast.org/home-is-associates