“Invasion Ecology” is a season of latest land artwork on Dartmoor that questions what we imply by “native” and what it means to belong—reimagining extra empathic connections between people, vegetation, animals and landscapes.

On the centre of the programme is an exhibition on show at Southcombe Barn—an arts area and gardens situated in Widecombe-in-the-Moor, Dartmoor. Artists embrace Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert and Ashanti Hare, with works spanning set up, efficiency, transferring picture and images.

Offered by Radical Ecology and Southcombe Barn, the programme interrogates the notion of Invasion Ecology—a time period first coined by Charles Elton in his 1958 examine The ecology of invasions by animals and vegetation which initiated the considering round native and invasive species which has since change into mainstream. The exhibition and wider programme undertake decolonial, land-based inquiry to start rethinking our relation to position and panorama. By casting an extended lens on historical past—again to the formation of continents—and specializing in the exploitation and displacement of vegetation and other people, the programme seeks to problem the “othering” of species by deconstructing binary distinctions between phrases comparable to “native” and “invasive.”

“Invasion Ecology encourages us to dig beneath the human/nature binary, to see not solely how we’re basically a part of our environments, however the deeper contradiction in our efforts as a species to segregate ourselves (and our obligations) from these environments. Simultaneous to the exploitation of pure sources—one thing which depends upon our detachment from the land—the propagation of well-liked arts, tradition, and languages which converse of what and who’s “native”—or not—counsel how our roots are inescapably entangled.”
—Vashti Cassinelli and Jelena Sofronijevic, co-curators of “Invasion Ecology”

The season begins on 1 Might with a daybreak refrain efficiency from British Artwork Present 9 and Southcombe gallery resident artist Hanna Tuulikki. The programme continues with a solo photographic exhibition, Wild Campers, in Might by activist and photographer Fern Leigh Albert. Wild Campers follows a bunch of land rights protesters, Proper to Roam, who in 2023 battled to reclaim the suitable to wild camp on Dartmoor. The group exhibition, “Invasion Ecology,” is on show in June when Southcombe gardens additionally open to the general public as a part of the Nationwide Backyard Scheme. The gardens, forming the backdrop to this programme, are a former plant nursery and have been recognized for his or her “native” wildflower meadows and contrasting juxtaposition of “unique” kinds of bushes and vegetation.

“I’m delighted to be a part of the ‘Invasion Ecology’ exhibition at Southcombe Barn. I’m wanting ahead to the wealthy encounters which will emerge—with the opposite artists and their works, with the birds and their tune, with the place and its reminiscence, and, after all with viewers—opening out a essential dialog round cultural understandings of ecology.”
—Hanna Tuulikki, “Invasion Ecology” artist

Decolonial dialogue and workshops will happen all through the period of the exhibits from exhibiting artists in addition to authors, gardeners and foragers. Ashanti Hare brings their sell-out River That By no means Rests efficiency to a reside surroundings on Southcombe’s grounds. Conceived across the River Exe—Hare performs as a sentient river which turns into “the watcher who connects the bodily with documented histories of Exeter and the broader south west; different worlds; the numerous oral histories of worldwide majority individuals and wildlife that journey to and thru it.” A participatory efficiency developed by Radical Ecology will take a look at how and why the language of native and invasive species in our gardens turned so pervasive. This efficiency will tour arts venues throughout Devon and Cornwall.

Taking part artists:
Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert and Ashanti Hare

by Radical Ecology at Southcombe Barn, Widecombe-in-the-Moor
till August 10, 2024