The Drawing Room
Wilcote Art Studio
OX7 3DX
November 2022
Ten Wilcote artists listen in to trees. The installations, drawings, and photographs shown here are the whispers heard as each artists brings a ‘delicate empiricism’ to creating their work. They heard whispers of childhood, of the passage of time, and of the essential interdependence of ecosystems.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) created the term ‘delicate empiricism’ to describe his scientific approach to the organic world. His methodology was one of conscious participation, a way of seeing with empathy rather than an objective looking at.
Exhibition curated by Nimmi Naidoo
Link to video https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/781915368
Karen Purple
“Nesting (process) in the manufacturing industry refers to the process of laying out cutting patterns to minimise raw material waste. This piece developed from the salvaged raw materials of a large jackdaws nest found in a chimney. An imaginative conversation was initiated between the bird activity, the artists response and the organic matter of its origin.”
Charcoal made by artist using twigs from the jackdaw’s nest.
Mary Knowland
“Childhood memories.”
Laura Middleton
“Everything is reflected in everything else. I think about the story of Indra’s net and quantum entanglement, specifically many-bodied entanglement. Particles separate and whole in themselves but connected.”
Annabel Ralphs
“An ongoing series of drawings working with variables and interruptions found in delicate networks and connective systems which sustain growth in trees and woods.”
Graph theory – a branch of mathematics concerned with networks of points connected by lines.
Nimmi Naidoo
“I cannot breathe without trees to give me breath.”
Flora Gregory
invites you to join her as she follows her nose through woods and gardens. She is a socially engaged artist who looks at the human-nature relationship.
Jen Newman
“Carbon paper from my order book, 2007 to 2018.”
Laraine Jones
Heart-shaped stoneware moulded onto a tree stump gathering an impression.”
Richard Fox
Trees rings and climate data
Imogen Rigden
“One remains separate, isolated. Removed from the society and sustenance of others, it will not thrive.”
NIMMI NAIDOO taking the pulse of a place 