Dear Earth

Hayward Gallery

21 June – 3 Sept 2023

Ackroyd & Harvey’s work is inspired by environmental activist Vandana Shiva’s call to reclaim ‘the commons’. The commons are the vital resources that we all need and must share to sustain life on Earth: soil, seed, water and air. Each resource is represented here by a London activist and the collectives they are part of.

Ackroyd & Harvey

Julian Lahai-Taylor | Grow Lewisham, 2023

Seedling fescue and perennial ryegrass, clay, hessian

Courtesy of the artists

The portrait depicts Julian Lahai-Taylor from Grow Lewisham, a collective committed to improving access to local land, growing organic food and restoring degraded soil.

 

Ackroyd & Harvey

Paul Powlesland | River Roding Trust & Lawyers for Nature, 2023

Seedling fescue and perennial ryegrass, clay, hessian

Courtesy of the artists

The portrait depicts Paul Powlesland, a nature rights activist and barrister, and co-founder of Lawyers for Nature and the River Roding Trust, which is planning a wetland riverside park.

 

Ackroyd & Harvey

Helene Schulze | London Freedom Seed Bank, 2023

Seedling fescue and perennial ryegrass, clay, hessian

Courtesy of the artists

The portrait depicts Helene Schulze of London Freedom Seed Bank, which is building an urban seed commons and distributing London-grown seed for free.

 

Ackroyd & Harvey

Love Ssega | LIVE + BREATHE, 2023

Seedling fescue and perennial ryegrass, clay, hessian

Courtesy of the artists

The portrait depicts musician and artist Love Ssega, co-founder of LIVE + BREATHE, who is raising awareness of the disproportionate effect of air pollution on Black and Brown Londoners.

 

Ackroyd & Harvey

Destiny Boka-Batesa | Choked Up, 2023

Seedling fescue and perennial ryegrass, clay, hessian

Courtesy of the artists

The portrait depicts student Destiny Boka-Batesa, one of the founders of the clean air campaign Choked Up, who is raising awareness of the disproportionate effect of air pollution on Black and Brown Londoners.

Our photosynthesis images depict activists who are reclaiming the commons. Soil, air and water are being taken into hands of communities campaigning for food security, clean air and Rights of Nature. The UK is one of the most nature-deleted countries in the world, where more than one in seven native species is at risk of extinction. This is a collective call to resist enclosure, a call to resist extinction. It’s a call for climate, racial and ecological justice.

Vast tracts of land given over to intensified agriculture may speak of the degradation to nature, but it speaks too of the history of land enclosure, industrialisation and colonisation.  The campaigners we have collaborated with challenge this inequity. Grow Lewisham is a collective committed to improving access to local land, growing food and restoring degraded soil through permaculture and organic practices, sharing skills and resources needed to build caring, sustainable relationships with each-other, land and planet. LIVE + BREATHE and Choked Up are changing the narrative of Black and Brown communities exposed to toxic air pollution making it inescapable to those in power. The River Roding Trust is breathing new life into damaged nature and planning a wetland riverside park with huge community support. London Freedom Seed Bank is building an urban seed commons, re-skilling, preserving and distributing London-grown seed for free for all who want to grow climate-adapted food.”

With grateful acknowledgment to Germinal for support with seed.