consequences

Why create giants?

“It’s about belonging. It’s about coming together to create something bigger than any one of us — a bold, beautiful statement of who we are when we work side by side.” Becca Gill, Artistic Director, Radical Ritual

Giants are born through a giant game of Consequences — a playful act of collective imagination. Four community groups each become co-creators of a different part: head, body, legs, and feet. Through walks in the landscape, they gather natural materials, make their own art supplies from what they find, and create their section — unaware of what the others are making. When all the pieces finally come together, the Giant is revealed — a surprising, joyful reflection of the people and the place that shaped it.

The finished Giant is vast and can be at least half the size of Wembley Stadium — and alive with the colours, creatures, and stories of its landscape. Its surface is a great collage of local flora and fauna, geology, myths, and the individual marks of everyone who helped to make it — a breathtaking statement of nature and belonging. When the Giant is revealed, communities see their own creativity stretched across the land or rising in an urban setting, transforming familiar places into sites of wonder. Audiences lie back on beanbags, surrounded by the soundscape, and experience the Giant’s immense presence — a moment of awe, pride, and connection.

The Giant’s canvas is sustainably printed using a breathable, biodegradable material that can be fully recycled after use. Designed specifically for protected landscapes including ancient monuments and SSSIs, it’s engineered to adapt to the most challenging terrains — allowing the artwork to appear in extraordinary places while leaving no trace behind.

Along with the artwork there is a composition originally created with local people and landscapes by Douglas Dare and a pamphlet on Giants and landscapes and access written and illustrated by Nick Hayes.

In Greek myth, Gaia’s Giants are destroyed symbolising the breaking of ancient ties between people, landscape, and story. Through Consequences they return as living symbols of renewal, reawakening to confront the realities of climate change through embracing our connection to each other and the natural world.

Consequences premiered as part of Nature Calling funded by Arts Council England, DEFRA and National Landscapes working with Activate Performing Arts and was presented at Inside Out Dorset 2025.  The giant was created with over 500 participants, viewed by over 27,000 people across 5 days with a social media impact of 64,000 reels and post views and stories in The Guardian, Total Theatre Magazine, BBC News and Dorset Echo.

Consequences is now touring with partners in UK and internationally

a second extraordinary giant that has been unfurled close by on the steep Dorset slopes, its vibrant colours and swirling shapes visible for miles around.

Steven Morris, The Guardian
The new hillside figure..has eyes made of flowers, butterfly ears, tentacle legs and a petal for each of the asylum seekers who composed its heart.

Marcus White BBC News
The images on it have been digitally created from the participants’ original drawings, using chalks coloured with inks and dyes taken from local plants. We see heads, hands, torsos, legs and feet of very many different creatures, real and mythical. There are beady eyes and beaks, scales and wings and tails, in many different hues. Just as in the parlour game Consequences, each team working on their section didn’t get to see what others had drawn until the end reveal

Dorothy Max Prior Total Theatre Magazine on Consequences – Radical Ritual
The May workshops were really special, the children were given small sketchbooks, I was amazed to see them began filling them with poems and drawings inspired by nature and the walks. It gave them a safe space to express themselves — something we don’t always see in school. It was amazing to see so many parents come along to watch the giant revealed, brought there by their children’s excitement and pride. ”

Danny Garfoot, Birchfield Primary School
Our hope for Nature Calling, our national arts project supported by Arts Council England and Defra, was to foster a deeper understanding and relationship with landscape by giving space for artists and communities to create work that captured their connection to nature and place. It has done that — and then some. I was a little lost for words. This was everything and more than I imagined and hoped Nature Calling could be. Thank you. It is beautiful in every way.

John Watkins, CEO, National Landscapes
How can we ever thank you enough for creating such an extraordinary spectacle over these past three weeks — and for the immense work that led up to it. The impact you’ve had on us, and on the Dorset National Landscape team, has been profound. You’ve opened hearts to nature.

Sue Dampney, Dorset National Landscapes
I just wanted to say what an absolute joy and privilege it’s been to be involved with this amazing project. The hard work that you and the whole team have put in has resulted in a beautiful piece of artwork with rich stories woven in. A huge well done!

Jusna Mustafa, Yeovil Together
My son told me he’d painted the giant’s feet with his primary school, so I came with my older son to join the parade. We carried banners that said Together we are Giant and were amazed to find my son’s picture inside the giant’s foot. We felt so proud. Next time my son tells me we have to go to something, I’ll take notice.

Audience member
We loved grinding up charcoal and chalk to make our own paint! It was so much fun to get messy and feel the materials. We learned that paint comes from nature, not just from plastic tubes, and that you can make colours from the earth itself.

Participant, Birchfield Primary School

How we co-create giants

Radical Ritual invite participants to take part in a series of creative workshops rooted in place, community, and collaboration. Across three sessions — Walk, Design, and Create — we explore the hidden stories of our local landscapes and consider what giant we would create together, now.

Together, we walk the land, listen deeply, share memories, and uncover layers of history. We co-design symbols and artefacts that reflect our collective experiences, and we craft offerings — both personal and communal — that feed into the creation of the communities’ Consequences giant.