Gaian Ecologies

Jemma Foster is a wildcrafter, astrologer and practitioner of plant and vibrational medicine. As a multi-disciplinary artist, her work explores myth, plant neurobiology and interspecies communication. She is the author of Sacred Geometry (Octopus 2020) and Wild Alchemy Lab: An Astro-Botanical Remedy Deck (Laurence King 2023) and founder of botanical studio Mama Xanadu, film studio Semantica Productions and transmedia lab and curatorial agency Wild Alchemy Lab.

Harun Morrison is an artist and writer whose work often employs collaborative processes. His practice spans spatial design, text, video and sound. He is currently  an associate artist with Greenpeace UK and Designer and Researcher in Residence at V&A Dundee, Scotland. His forthcoming novel, The Escape Artist will be published by Book Works in 2024.  Since 2006, Harun has collaborated with Helen Walker as part of the collective practice They Are Here. Harun has recently contributed to the group exhibition Chronic Hunger, Chronic Desire in Timișoara, Romania, as part of the European Capital of Culture 2023 programme. Solo exhibitions in the last few years include, Dolphin Head Mountain at the Horniman Museum, London (2022 -23), Mark The Spark at Nieuwe Vide project space in Haarlem, Netherlands (2022) and Experiments with Everyday Objects, Eastside Projects, Birmingham, (2021). Harun continues to develop and repair a garden for Mind Sheffield, a mental health support service, as part of the Arts Catalyst research project, Emergent Ecologies, and is producing an evolving publication, Environmental Justice Questions commissioned by Mossutställningar, which he continues to circulate. 

Environmental Justice Questions was originally commissioned by Mossutstallningar with additional support from V&A Dundee and APAP network.

Question contributors in this iteration include: 

Kat Cotta, Naho Matsuda, Rosalie Schweiker, Stella d'Ailly, Jane Trowell, Harun Morrison, Danika J. L Thomas,  Graham Burnett, Holly Keasey, Vishal Parekh, Maymana Arefin, Anahi Saravia Herrera, Jessica El Mal, Åsa Össbo, Eva Sajovic, Owen Griffiths, Yasmine Ostendorf, Evie Muir, Fatima Alalaiwat, Andrea Ku, Mark Godber, Wood Roberdeau, Jared Gradinger, Jack Hannam, Chris Fremantle, Ireen van Dolderen, Rowan Lear, Taey Iohe, Felicitas Zeeden, Sandra Man, Siriol Joyner, Marjet Zwaans, Lisa Stewart, Liz Rosenfeld, Nazakat Azimli, Sophie J Williamson, Inês Neto dos Santos, Olga Grotova, Manon Awst, Ashley Edwards, Satpreet Kahlon, Luiza Prado O Martins, Gayatri Kodikal, Ayumi Paul, Elisabeth Del Prete, Phoebe Davies, Joseph M. Pierce, Ada M. Patterson, Kajsa Sahlin, Rauna Kuokkanen, Max Troell, Luja von Köckritz, Angela YT Chan, Melissa Barton, Rachel Pimm, Kate McIntosh, Oliver Ressler, The Mycological Twist, Jasmine Roha Wakefield, Niamh Riordan, Mary Jane Edwards, Maxwell Ayamba, Katy Beinart, Rahima Gambo, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Rima Sonigara, Graham Harwood, Mandus Ridefelt, Jonas Staal, Adelita Husni-Bey.

Tom Jeffreys is an Edinburgh-based writer whose main focus is contemporary art that engages with ecological concerns. Tom is the author of two books: The White Birch: a Russian Reflection (Little, Brown, 2021) and Signal Failure: London to Birmingham, HS2 on Foot (Influx Press, 2017). His writing has appeared in Artforum, ArtReview, e-flux, Frieze, The Guardian, The Independent, New Scientist and The World of Interiors. He is currently working in collaboration with artist Kirsty Badenoch in response to old-growth forests in Scotland through experimental approaches to walking, writing and drawing. This will result in an exhibition at Staffordshire St Gallery, London (9-12 November 2023) and an artist book.

Hylozoic/Desires (Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser) is a multi-media performance duo whose work combines experimental poetry and original music in order to conjure Borgesian, speculative futures and multiverses. H/D aspire toward a flat ontological ether in which all forms of life—stone, spirit, machine or human—are equal. They skew the linear imagination of time and space to produce divergences that elicit wonder. H/D’s research orbits around (non)place and histories of migration, transnationalism and environmental cosmism to learn from the multiple materialities of contemporary existence. They are concerned with the (poly)rhythms of love and the bea(s)t of belonging. Hylozoic/Desires use metaphor as an event, as a force of attraction that holds otherwise distant entities together.

Himali Singh Soin is a writer and artist based between London and Delhi. She uses metaphors from outer space and the natural environment to construct imaginary cosmologies of interferences and entanglements. In doing this, she thinks through ecological loss and the loss of home, seeking shelter somewhere in the radicality of love. 

David Soin Tappeser is a drummer, composer and performance artist based between London and New Delhi. his practice explores socio-eco-spiritual-tempo-somatic dimensions of sound. his performances and compositions use rhythm to unearth, manipulate and deconstruct linear perceptions of time, interdependence and alterity. they hint at intercultural entanglements, parallel histories and extra-human frames of reference while thinking about environmental destruction and sociopolitical fissures.

Susanna Davies-Crook is a writer, curator and artist and currently holds the post of Curator of Talks and Research at the ICA (Institute of Contemporary Arts), London and Head of Growth at Ignota Books. In 2019, Susanna worked from concept to completion with Jefferson Hack on Transformer: A Rebirth of Wonder at 180 Strand in the role of Associate Curator. Her writing has been published internationally including in Frieze, DAZED, Twin and LEAP Shanghai and co-runs Write Club at Soho House. Susanna studied at The Royal College of Art, University of California Berkeley, University of Leeds and University of the Arts London and is a graduate of the Faber&Faber novel writing course. She is also a fully qualified hypnotherapist D.Hyp, HPD (NCH), CH and yoga teacher.