In The Nature of Things, curated by artist Jane Hayes Greenwood, works by 19 artists explore the thingliness of nature and the nature of things. The show cultivates a network of connections between works that are created in a world where AI supports cultural production, plant intelligence has gained wider recognition and the boundaries between human and non-human entities are increasingly blurred.
The works speak of personal experiences, touch on ecology, ancient and indigenous knowledge and explore our complex relationship with the vegetal world, telling stories of displacement, violence, extraction and consumption. The Nature of Things draws a connection between contemporary perceptions of the natural world and ancient animistic worldviews, set against a backdrop of climate emergency. The exhibition underscores a renewed engagement with the (un)natural world
Holly Stevenson’s low-heeled ceramic shoes (2023/4) grow flowers, sprout mushrooms, wear human features and produce tentacles that prod and poke. Utilising a symbolic language, these works take on a Disney-like animation where cartoonish forms serve as a gateway to the feminine unconscious, with the line between the animate and inanimate, the real and the imagined becoming intriguingly blurred.
Sophie Barber, Shiraz Bayjoo, Gareth Cadwallader, Exodus Crooks, Martyn Cross, Jane Hayes Greenwood, Andy Holden, Serena Korda, Mark Leckey, Robin Mason, Vivien McDermid, Karen McLean, Victor Seaward, Holly Stevenson, Jonathan Trayte, Emma Talbot, Georg Wilson, Dominic Watson, Lian Zhang