Dear Nature by John Newling
After the exhibition Ecologies of Value, in 2013, artist John Newling returns to Nottingham Contemporary to launch his new book Dear Nature. In 2018, the artist spent 81 consecutive days writing letters to nature. Part truth and reconciliation, part advocacy of an urgent need, part thoughts for future social ecologies, the letters convey the artist’s long-standing reflection on where planet Earth stands today. In parallel to the letters, the book shows the growth of a flax plant cultivated in the artist's studio over 81 days.
Join the artist for a live reading and discussion through the history of agriculture, economics, religion, and capitalism to the present day.
There will be a live reading of letters selected by members of the local community that in some way are working with sustainability and nature. The reading will be followed by Sarah Shalgosky, curator of the Mead Gallery and Warwick Arts Centre.
John Newling will be signing books after the interview and the books will be available at a special price. There will be local sustainable snacks and drinks provided by Ottar and Small Food Bakery.
Dear Nature, is published by Nottingham based contemporary art publisher Beam Editions.
Free. Booking recommended.
John Newling is a pioneer of public art with a social purpose. His work explores the natural world and the social and economic systems of society. Newling belongs to a generation of artists whose work evolved from Conceptual Art, Land Art and Arte Povera – art movements occurring during the 1960s that placed emphasis on the concept, process and site of the work, alongside material and aesthetic properties. Many of his works articulate a relationship or language of meaning and materiality that constructs cultivates and reviews a poetics of responsibility. Newling lives and works in Nottingham, where he is Emeritus Professor of Installation Sculpture at Nottingham Trent University.
Event:
Dear Nature by John NewlingDates:
5 Mar 2019, 6pm–9pmSupported by:
