Science Gallery London
Ackroyd & Harvey and Sir Ben Okri, I Sing the Spirit Fantastic, 2024
Ackroyd & Harvey have grown Ben Okri’s visionary poetry into living skins of seedling grass. Displayed in a dried state, they present the climate crisis as – in part – a crisis of the imagination. The poem speaks to the transformative power of nature; to the wind, the tides and the sun that could transform our energy systems as well as inspire new ways of living in relation to the natural world.
A more complete version of the poem is presented in the work at the gallery entrance, while a short excerpt was used for the banner on the staircase leading up to the first floor.
Vital Signs | Curatorial Statement
In an unfolding climate crisis, how can humanity navigate the transition we need to build a happier, healthier and fairer world?
Calling for stronger alliances with the nonhuman world – and with one another – in order to survive, the Vital Signs season joins the dots between our bodies and the environmental and social conditions that sustain them. How might art and creative collaboration spark ideas for collective change and heal broken relationships with ourselves, each other and nature?
Through a series of embodied and immersive encounters, exhibition visitors discover stories situated across time and place, and share in lived experiences which reveal the ways in which the health of the planet; from our waterways, to our atmosphere and the ocean floor, is intimately connected to our own. Participatory and reflective works invite a collective reimagining – beyond fear – where we honour our differences and acknowledge that survival isn’t individual but mutual, in order to reconnect to our changing world.
Other projects foreground the plural ways in which people are grappling with a world in transition now: through diaspora food cultures, changing traditions, rethinking waste, community advocacy against polluters, we learn from the people already fighting for fairer and more sustainable ways to live. Together, they encourage different ways of gathering, thinking and being in relation to each other and nature, and ask in this era of ongoing climate, health and social crises, whose voices should be heard? What better ways are there to live in these uncertain times?
Experiential and discursive events explore the roots of the crisis and the myriad ways in which relating to nature differently can enable practical action towards ecological & social justice and better human and planetary health.
Emerging from a university-based gallery, Vital Signs has been shaped by artists, environmental and social scientists, people affected by the climate crisis around the world, students, legal researchers, social anthropologists, engineers, and more.
