Plants in Parallel
Plants in Parallel is Ensō London’s first group show. The exhibition draws inspiration from the contradictions within the etymology of the word ‘plant’. As Rosetta S. Elkin explains in the essay ‘Plant Life: The Practice of Working Together’, ‘plant’ emerges from two Latin origins: planta, to sprout, and plantare, to fix in place. These two root words conjure up acts that appear to be at odds - through sprouting, we see a developmental process that occurs with growth and movement, while being fixed in place implies an intentional state of stasis.
This exhibition delves into the duality held by the identity of plants and extends it to the observation of artistic practices that exist in conversation with the natural world. In working with nature, elements such as leaves; stones; soil; bodies of water and sunlight become a catalyst, a medium and a collaborator. We are as fascinated by the artworks on display themselves as we are with the diverse processes that have led to their formation.We welcome you to view the work of these 10 talented artists whose creative practises exist in conversation with the natural world and in parallel with plants.
Billy Barraclough
Photographic Artist
Observing natural processes; returning to a place and time.
The River Ribble runs past Barraclough’s grandfather’s house in Giggleswick, North Yorkshire. Whilst waiting to photograph the salmon run in the late Autumn at Stainforth Waterfall, he noticed patterns that were created in foam by the force of the waterfall. The darkness of the deep peaty river contrasted the intricate and ever-changing patterns of the foam.
Located within a deep valley, the sun only reached that stretch of the river for an hour a day, between 12 noon and 1pm. Capturing these impermanent formations within an environment in constant fluctuation required repeated experiments – with a different variable being adjusted each time. This process led Barraclough to discover that, along with timing the conditions of natural light, recent rainfall was equally vital.
Creating ‘Foam on the River Ribble I & II’ was only possible through humble conversations with elements of nature. For Barraclough, it required an understanding of the language of the environment and an allowance of nature to dictate the terms of engagement.
Foam on the River Ribble I (2023) Giclee print on Hahnemuhle Pearl
Foam on the River Ribble II (2023)
Tim Copsey
Ceramic Artist
Growing up in Manchester, surrounded by clay pits and brickworks, Copsey's early tactile experiences of picking up clay from the ground were instrumental in shaping his career. His works, which he describes as “space debris”, inhabit the border between function and sculpture, resonant of their materiality and the landscape from which they derive.
The Dark Peak Pennine landscape serves as both a starting point for Copsey’s creative process and a source of materials such as gritstone, ash, and clay for slips, as well as the wooden tools he makes himself. Its influence is most evident in the shapes and surfaces of his work, reflecting elements like drystone wall caps, tenter stones, and the dynamics of waterfalls—rocky outcrops redirecting water flow and the interplay of water and light on these surfaces.
Issues Edge (2023)
Black clay, black porcelain dust, tenmoku, ash and silver lustre
Issues Edge Waterfall (2023)
Black clay, black porcelain dust, shine, tenmoku, ash glazes
Guinomi (2024)
Wood-fired with pink tin glaze and gold/silver lustre
Tokkuri (2024)
Wood-fired with granite inclusion, iron glitter glaze and silver lustre
Narelle Dore
Natural Colour Researcher and Artist
Pendulum (2023) Charred bone black casein on khaki paper
Interconnectedness between natural processes, the botanical world and human perception form the core of Dore’s artistic practice. Informed by extensive fieldwork with natural dye masters conducted in India and Mexico, her work highlights trans-generational knowledge through the preservation of traditional techniques for creating pigments through the use of natural materials and botanical extracts.
Ephemerality and chance drove the creation of ‘Pendulum’, when two giant sunflowers (grown by Dore) were dipped in charred bone black casein and swung back and forth. Each swing, mimicking the regulated motion of a pendulum, captured the essence of measured existence and the enduring cadence of the universe. The heliotropic behaviour of a sunflower carries the movement of its own lifecycle through a different tempo; guided by the movement of the sun as it ripens and matures to seed. A dialogue emerges between the interplay of controlled rhythm and natural movement, speaking to the balance of life and death
The sunflower’s journey and the pendulum’s motion intersect in a constellation of pigment.
Emi Fujisawa
Textile Artist and Designer
“The earth moves, the sky changes. The tree grows and slowly absorbs the sunlight. The moss is gradually transpiring in the shade. Individuals accept individuals and they bond with each other.“
kaku kaku (2014)
Patinated copper yarn, natural dyed silk yarn, alpaca wool
As each of the natural processes which inspire Emi vary in its cadences, ‘kaku kaku’ and ‘poco poco’ were created as an exploration of the passage of time on textiles. Trained as a Sukumo Indigo dyer in Japan, these pieces were hand woven using copper yarn, British alpaca yarn and silk (dyed with minerals and plants collected from the English coast). Over time, and exposure to oxygen, patination transformed the pieces from their initial orange-red tones. And they will continue to evolve at their own pace.
poko poko (2014)
Patinated copper yarn, natural dyed silk yarn, alpaca wool
Katerina Knight
Textile Artist, Writer and Educator
The creation of ‘Wing of Winter II’ began, as Knight describes, “not with the first thread that was pulled, but rather when the first seed was sown”.
After moving from London to the rural Worcestershire countryside, Knight’s practice as a textile artist became immersed in the unsheltered natural landscape while she grew lavender and dahlias on her allotment over the summer. As winter came around, the rising river levels and extreme flooding impacted her daily ritual of walks in nature. Slowly and patiently, she maintained her connection to the Earth by hand-threading together the petals from her dahlia flowers and the seeds from her lavender plants. Guided by the rhythmic flow of threading, ‘Wing of Winter II’ is a reminder of expressing gratitude for every single, small and beautiful offering from the Earth.
A detail from ‘Wing of Winter II (2024)’
Pear_ed
Collaborative Project: Cynthia Fan and Hayden Malan
Pear_ed: Excerpt 1 (2024)
Pear_ed centres around the guiding question: “What do plants really want?”
At once resisting and quoting traditions of flower arranging, the pair's botanical compositions and conversations become a medium for spending (more) time with organic matter and listening to the non-human sentient.
Together, they share a preoccupation with the sculptural potential of plants as both natural organisms and modular structures. The current focus of this project, divided between London and Amsterdam, is an instagram-based dialogue between unusual plants. Plotted onto an interactive map (pear-ed.com/map), and temporarily in print for ‘Plants in Parallel’, the plants shift and change over the course of the project, insisting on their autonomy - some wilt, others send out aerial roots; growth and decay persists.
Gabriella Rhodes
Artist working with clay and soil
Rhodes considers her practice as land-based, in that it is rooted in artistic research, materiality, and the environment. She creates sculptural objects using local and abundantly available materials, predominantly clay-rich earth, which she forages following landslips or receives as 'waste' from local industries involved in land extraction, such as agriculture and construction. Her works often depict the land, sea, and sky of the Llŷn Peninsula in North Wales where she resides. Each piece is conceived as an abstract interpretation of her encounters in nature, from cloud formations to undulating hills and water-worn stones.
The pieces exhibited in ‘Plants in Parallel’ are part of an ongoing series of earthworks made in collaboration with local and abundant materials. The techniques she employs are a modern interpretation of traditional earth-building practices that combine earth and straw to construct houses in Wales and the wider UK. Through the examination of geological maps, walking in the landscape, and researching historical land use, a holistic picture of the materials and their relationship to the place is established. This is key to Rhodes’ process.
‘Earth Mound’ and ‘Earth Petroglyph’ are made from boulder clay that forms the nearby cliffs, deposited by glaciers from the Irish Sea which covered the peninsula about 18,000 years ago. Sea erosion and frequent landslips unearth the material without Rhodes needing to dig and disturb the soil. ‘Mynydd (Mountain)’ is made from an iron-rich silt/clay subsoil diverted from landfill during the construction of a local pond.
Through her work, Rhodes hopes to challenge prevailing extractive attitudes that see earthy material as either ‘waste’ or ‘resource’, in favour of an interconnected existence with the more-than-human world.
Mynydd (Mountain) (2023)
Repurposed soil, foraged clay, repurposed sand, straw, repurposed stone dust, linseed oil
Earth Petroglyph (2023)
Foraged clay, repurposed sand, straw, repurposed stone dust, beeswax
Earth Mound (2023)
Foraged clay, repurposed sand, straw, repurposed stone dust, linseed oil
Simão Romualdo
Artist working with clay and soil
The crumbling stones gathered and embedded in Romualdo’s works carry the poetry held within million-year-old rock formations. The incorporation of these materials within delicate porcelain sculptures hold a mirror to the tension between the strength and fragility of natural environments. Drawing upon ecological and archaeological references, Romualdo sustains his spiritual connection to the Earth by collecting natural materials for artistic guidance wherever he finds himself in the world.
The crumbling stones gathered and embedded in Romualdo’s works carry the poetry held within million-year-old rock formations. The incorporation of these materials within delicate porcelain sculptures hold a mirror to the tension between the strength and fragility of natural environments. Drawing upon ecological and archaeological references, Romualdo sustains his spiritual connection to the Earth by collecting natural materials for artistic guidance wherever he finds himself in the world.
Utsawa 3 (2024) and Utsawa 4 (2024)
Raku porcelain and wild-foraged granite
Utsawa 1 (2024) and Utsawa 2 (2024)
Raku porcelain and wild-foraged granite
The larger pieces that are exhibited in ‘Plants in Parallel’ form a body of work called ‘Utsuwa’, from the Japanese word for “vessel”. "Utsuwa" refers to simple containers such as cups, plates, and dishes, and can be expressed through the gesture of cupped hands. It is also used to describe an individual whose character reflects humility and gratitude.
These vessels contain wild granite and soils that Romualdo collected from an array of locations. The materiality of the ingredients is humbling as we recognise the geological time scale in which they, and we, coexist.
Guinomi series (2024)
Raku porcelain and wild-foraged clay
Guinomi series (2024)
Raku porcelain, Parian porcelain and wild-foraged clay
Colin Stewart
Artist, Gardener and Writer
Keeping Up Appearances (2024)
Pencil and pastel on primed cotton
Colin Stewart is a gardener, artist and writer. He views practical gardening as a creative process and draws inspiration from gardens, as well as the culture and practice of gardening, to create work in other media.
The drawings, ‘Keeping Up Appearances’, came from observing the gentle decline of his childhood garden in Glasgow, an 'undoing' that has led to unexpected moments of abstract beauty in its decay. The drawings are executed with his late father's unused art materials.
Keeping Up Appearances (2024)
Pencil and pastel on primed cotton
Keeping Up Appearances (2024)
Pencil and pastel on primed cotton
Jesse Navarre Vos
Photographic Artist
For Vos, nature is both a recurring theme and a sentimental realm in his art, offering endless connection and meaning. Printed on mulberry bark paper, his works are intentionally altered by the sun throughout the day, serving as a subtle reminder that shadows cannot exist without light.
The two photographs exhibited form part of an ongoing project in collaboration with Vos’ adoptive mother, Edith, who is also his paternal grandmother. Their relationship in the context of a biological timeline is confronted with more tangible feelings associated with ageing, fear, separation and loss, and was compounded by the unexpected — a burglary at their family home in 2018. In the aftermath of the burglary, he attempted to find what had been lost and had been taken. He spent countless days immersed in Newlands Forest in Cape Town, South Africa, a place where he used to walk with his mom, but who could no longer accompany him there. ‘A separation’ is the search for reconnection and belonging: from a place of no return.
Unable to return to the forest, Vos took her to the Boschenheuvel Arboretum, which was situated nearby. Immersed in the comfort of the trees, ‘Mom, hope we can again’ was created as shifts in his relationship with Edith emerged, who appeared to be slipping away with age. The incorporation of flowers and this environment sparked an unexpected deepening in the engagement from Edith, as she remembered garden plants from past homes and recalled memories of flowers from a seemingly past life.
A separation (2024) and Mom, hope we can again (2024)
Giclee print on Kozo paper
Ensō Team
An installation by Wai Yan Sze and Wing Cheng
Parallel Pathways - Roots and Reaches
In the garden’s heart,
two stories bloom,
Of bamboo’s reach
and aloe’s quiet room.
One rises swiftly,
seeking the sky,
The other holds steady,
as days pass by.
Bamboo, with its thirst,
draws deep from the land,
A symbol of growth,
by nature’s hand.
It speaks of dreams that stretch
and rise,
Of aspirations that touch the skies.
Aloe, serene,
with patience stored,
Endures in silence,
its strength restored.
Its leaves tell tales of quiet grace,
Thriving in drought with steadfast pace.
Together they stand,
in contrast, aligned,
A dance of duality,
intertwined.
Growth and stasis,
ambition and resilience,
Reflecting the human spirit’s coexistence.
For we are the bamboo,
reaching far and wide,
And we are the aloe,
with strength inside.
In this parallel path,
plants and humans align,
Where roots and
dreams in harmony shine.
In “Roots and Reaches,”
truth softly unfurl,
Through bamboo and aloe,
wisdoms swirl.
A dialogue of nature,
a silent embrace,
Teaching us to grow,
yet remain in place.
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