#NWConnect: Wilderness Bewilderness: Matters Arising (live stream webinar)
Wed 11 May 2022 7pm-8pm | Free
The exhibition Wilderness Bewilderness was conceived by Imogen Rigden during lockdown 2020. This was when the natural world recovered its strength as the human world, temporarily, retreated.
The artist and environmentalist Richard Sharland discusses with Imogen, live online, why these pieces of work came about, and they share their discoveries and concerns about the natural world as our human existence returns to normal.
Free event but booking required. BOOK HERE to reserve your place for the webinar. Joining instructions to be sent in early May.
Imogen Rigden: Wilderness Bewilderness (exhibition)
Tue 03 – Sat 21 May 2022
The Gallery at The North Wall
Fresh air, bird song, silence. In 2020 we noticed our natural environment with renewed clarity.
As our horizons narrowed in lockdown, Imogen Rigden‘s Look Outside project called for brief written observations of the natural world at a time of limited freedom. Two hundred contributions from across the globe feature in this solo show.
Imogen’s garden became a mini nature reserve after ‘no-mow May’ extended far into autumn. The Company Of Everything Else records this revelatory season of growth with photographs on a staff photo display board. The artist uses this device to suggest that each plant, or member of the Company, is working to the same end, providing a haven for wildlife and clean air for all.
The Untidied Garden drawings explore the tangled shapes of older, seeding plants, a richness often denied to a tidied space.
Paintings and drawings celebrate commonly undervalued trees, for example poplar and hawthorn.
Imogen employs home-made natural plant dyes in three-dimensional work. The Wild Plants’ Street Party refers to socially distanced neighbourhood gatherings. Lush, health-giving street plants celebrate their season to thrive.
Drawings in ink, oil and graphite reference the rhythm of bird song, rain and windstorms.
Imagined landscapes propose unreachable places, safe from human exploitation and destruction.
As wild places are lost to development, could networks of wild gardens become a new kind of nature reserve?
Part of Oxfordshire Artweeks 2022.
Artweeks is an artists’ organisation which provides opportunities for Oxfordshire artists and designer-makers with a flagship event in May, a festival of open studios and pop-up exhibitions across the county, and a general Christmas Season.
The 2022 Artweeks festival takes place from Sat 07 – Sun 29 May 2022.
