Gallery Video

Full soundscape

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This soundscape is for a collaboration with artist and florist Harriet Parry for British Flowers Week. Harriet has re-invented Hilma af Klint’s painting ‘ Evolution No. 13 ’ into a large-scale floral sculpture at The Garden Museum in London.

Af Klint’s artworks were so forward-thinking that she asked them to be hidden for 20 years after her death in 1944 as she believed the public of her time were not ready for her art, and that an audience in the future might be. This future audience includes you. Af Klint’s belief was that nature is our higher guide, and her work combines this idea with the Theory of Evolution. By magnifying and abstracting the cellular details of plants and flowers that she had observed whilst studying botany, and then turning these into enlarged geometric shapes, she draws attention to the complexity and intelligence of nature, celebrating and honoring it.

The soundscape was recorded at Knepp Wildland, a 3500-acre estate once used for intensive farming which is now a pioneering conservation project by rewilding the land. I was inspired to record here after researching Af Klint’s beliefs about connecting with nature and nature's power. Knepp uses grazing animals to drive habitat curation and with the restoration of dynamic, natural water courses the project has seen incredible increases in wildlife. Extremely rare species like turtle doves, nightingales, peregrine falcons and purple emperor butterflies are now breeding there; and populations of more common species are rocketing. 

The soundscape I have recorded demonstrates how effective rewilding can be as it captures the incredibly dense sonic atmosphere of birds including rare species such as turtle doves, nightingales and the distant squark of a white stork. 

Knepp’s focus on rewilding the land and creating a sustainable environment for future generations of humans and wildlife highly reflects the themes and aims of Af Klints artwork. As an artist she focused on bringing awareness to the natural world and believed in it as a guide to humanity. This soundscape reflects the tranquillity of nature and the power it has as a higher guide, something Af Klints work also invokes. I hope to recreate the feeling of being in a natural space and I believe alongside Harriet Parry’s large floral sculpture this project is an incredible example of how we should conserve nature for our future.