This exhibition focused on the relationship between humans and plants, in particular stinging nettles. Nettles are often considered a weed – having no particular use and yet over millennia they have been an important source of food, medicine, fibre and colour for human life.
There are also many characteristics of the nettle that we humans share. We have the power to hurt or to heal. Our bodies are fibrous, pigmented, porous and leaky. We respire, expire, digest and decay together, leaving many traces.
The work on show examined and enacted these ideas through video, performance, drawing, prints and textiles that incorporate both human and plant body matter. Drawing from pre-modern attitudes towards plants which were built on respect, reciprocity and care, the work aims to honour the debt owed and give thanks to the nettle through acts of ritual and relic.
The exhibition venue of St. Peter’s Church connected with connotations of the place as setting for ritual gatherings, plus the church’s specific architecture and imagery have inspired additional new works made specifically for the site.
The exhibition was supported by the Gane Trust Grant and the Open College of The Arts Enterprise Enhancement Scheme.
Sue Parr 
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