Honiton: Upcoming Thelma Hulbert will capture the beauty and fragility of the natural world

Opening in January at the Thelma Hulbert, A Language of Seeds will feature an inspiring exhibition of work by artist Léonie Hampton.

Léonie Hampton is from the artist collective Still/Moving. Her work highlights the climate urgency and the vulnerability of the natural world. 

The exhibition will focus on the current environmental crisis through a series of photographs. 

The exhibition will draw our attention to the current environmental crisis, through the tender relationships she creates between human hand, body and mouth, and the food she grows. Her photographs feature children, which highlight the fact that they are witnessing and inheriting the climate emergency. 

The Language of Seeds is a response to the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery (RAMM)'s botany collection, which Hampton visited. Here she was introduced to a range of specimens including those from local enthusiasts such as William D'Urban, RAMM's first curator, and William Keble Martin, best known for his book The Concise British Flora in Colour. Hampton was particularly interested in the act of collecting with its semantics of preservation and its interruption of the natural process of decay.

Léonie Hampton said: "The perceptions and values of plants can open ways to perceive ourselves in relation to our urgent biodiversity and climate crisis. This reiteration of A Language of Seeds within Thelma Hulbert Gallery will create different relationships including between plants and photography.  

"I am intrigued to experience how meanings of the work might shift, unravelling hidden threads, so that I might better understand how to support more flourishing trajectories.

Councillor Paul Arnott, Leader East Devon District Council said: "The way in which the work at the THG continues to explore the interaction of nature and art at a critical time for our environment is really compelling. 

"We live in a diverse landscape and it is great to see this natural inspiration reflected at East Devon's premier gallery yet again."

The Thelma Hulbert will be hosting a series of linked events, including creative writing workshops and family woodwork events. You can find out more information here.