‘The Botanist’, Myfanwy MacLeod
HS Projects is delighted to present The Botanist, an exhibition of recent works by Myfanwy MacLeod, not shown in London before, that serve to reconcile us with the botanical world, magnifying the interdependency and symbiotic relationship between plants and humans.
At the centre of the exhibition is ‘Fallen’, a monumental wooden sculpture depicting Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Inspired by a small historical sculpture from the collection of the Gherdëina Museum in Ortisei, Italy, an apple is held by Eve and fallen fruit lies at the feet of the figures. However, the Tree of Knowledge is felled.
Within a forest of stumps, Adam and Eve appear as mascot-like stewards of a tree-less anthropocentric paradise. Non-human beings often appear as backdrops to our lives, yet here carved from wood, Myfanwy reminds us that Adam and Eve’s presence is inextricably connected to the trees that are absent she asks how can our kinship with non-human life create the conditions for our mutual survival?
The proliferation and control of nature is explored in ‘Pink Rot’, an installation of identically cast potatoes. The title of the work refers to the pink rot potato disease which is endemic in soils where the crop is repeatedly grown. While genetic modifications may counter disease and increase yield, the impact of intensive farming on soil erosion and biodiversity is still held within the land. The potatoes of ‘Pink Rot’ are witness to this – alluringly pink, cloned immaculately, though heavy and dead. Using the language of minimalism and pop-art, Myfanwy creates an unsettling monument to our agro-ecologies.
An emblem of intertwined yellow tulips features on the hand-painted flag, ‘Figure of a Woman’, a riff on satirical heraldic flags found in the allegorical artworks of Hendrik Gerritsz Pot’s painting ‘Wagon of Fools’ (circa 1632) and Pieter Nolpe’s etching ‘Flora’s Fool’s Cap’ (circa 1637) which mock the craze of Tulipmania in Holland during the 1630s. Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, features in both of these historical works, symbolic of the gendered conventions of flowers her presence also feminises the folly of Tulipmania. In contrast to these works, Myfanwy’s flag asks us to reconsider the feverish impulses of Tulipmania. It communicates the commoditisation of plant life to serve speculation agendas. It can also be interpreted as a flag for Flora, giving status to her powerful identity that crosses the threshold between humans and plants.
Myfanwy MacLeod has exhibited her work throughout Canada, Australia, the United States and Europe.
Solo exhibitions include Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, Wales (2023); Canada House, London, UK (2019); Or Gallery, Vancouver (2015); Vancouver Art Gallery (2014); Museum London, London, ON (2013); Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver (2012); Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver (2006).
Selected group exhibitions include the Biennale Gherdëina, Ortisei, Italy (2020) Polygon Gallery, Vancouver (2017); Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto (2013); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA, USA (2012); Vancouver Art Gallery (2010); Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Toronto (2008); Kunstverein Wolfsburg, Germany (2004); The Power Plant, Toronto; Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburg; Gasworks, London, UK (2002); Canadian Pavilion, Melbourne International Biennial, Australia (1999); and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, Vancouver (1998).
‘The Botanist’ is at Howick Place from December 2024 to June 2025.
‘Plant Power’, Annie Trevorah
HS Projects is delighted to present Plant Power, an exhibition of new and recent work by Annie Trevorah that explores human and non-human interconnectivity.
Delving into an imagined world where nature takes centre stage, Trevorah challenges the prevailing human-centered narrative of the Anthropocene and explores themes of bio-morphism, ecofeminism and ecological harmony. Drawing inspiration from Donna Haraway’s “A Cyborg Manifesto,” her sculptures blur the boundaries between human and non-human, organic and synthetic. They embody a vision of resistance and transformation, questioning established notions of power and agency in the natural world.
Trevorah conjures an alien species defined by adaptive features that safeguard survival in a precarious future. Her part human / part plant hybrids have stood their ground in galleries, parks and gardens. Plant Power marks their propagation into the hustle and bustle of an office environment.
Showcasing twelve works, including a painting to introduce a new body of work dedicated to the maritime realm, groups of sensual cyborgs and symbiotic totems are huddled in opposite corners, exchanging water cooler stories under the watchful gaze of their mutant supervisors, whose predatory and fallible characteristics serve as reminders of the effects of climate change on all life- forms. Fusing organic and synthetic materials into intriguing monuments to human-plant interconnectivity, Trevorah merges eco-feminist theory with subtle humour to encourage reflection and reassurance.
Completing her MA in Sculpture at the RCA in 2023, Annie Trevorah has been selected for prestigious exhibitions both nationally and internationally.
She had her first London solo show Symbiosis in February 2023, followed by Triffids, celebrating Chelsea Physic Garden’s 350th anniversary in October, and Nature is a Cyborg at ALICE BLACK Gallery in May 2024.Trevorah was selected to exhibit with Arte Laguna alongside the Venice Biennale 2024 and was a finalist for the VAA Artist of the Year 2024 award. Other international shows include Centro Culturale di Milano, Las Laguna Gallery, USA, FOLD and 67 York Street, London and Chianciano Biennale 2022 where she was awarded a Prize for Photography and Digital Art. This year also sees inclusion in Artsted’s 99 Blue Chip Artists.
Public works include Memorial to a Memorial temporarily replacing Barbara Hepworth’s Single Form in Battersea Park, commissioned by Wandsworth Council in 2022, and this year’s ANANAS, funded by Arts Council England, for Fulham Palace to commemorate the 50th anniversary of opening its house and gardens to the public, later taking up its place in Holland Park as part of KCAW.
‘Plant Power’ is at 12 Hammersmith Grove from December 2024 to June 2025.
‘Of Paradise and Other Places’, Saad Qureshi
HS Projects is delighted to present Of Paradise and Other Places, an exhibition of recent works by Saad Qureshi that have not been shown in London before. Described by Laura Cumming in the Observer as “one of our most pensive and poetic artists”, Qureshi’s sculptures give form to the ideas or stories by which we lend meaning to human existence.
The exhibition includes a striking element of his monumental sculptural installation Something about Paradise, commissioned for the Chapel at Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 2020. Saad travelled around the country talking to people of faith, as well as atheists and agnostics, about what the concept of Paradise represents or looks like to them. Descriptions of indistinct and imagined places, as recalled from their memories or envisaged in their dreams, were then interpreted and woven together into sculptural forms. These towering and sprawling organic forms are punctuated by a diverse range of landscape features and architectures drawn from across the world. From temples and churches to modernist houses, these structures reveal the spiritual and the earthly in unison and without geographical borders. The monochrome palette gives the work an otherworldly feeling that is further emphasised by a fanciful and inconsistent use of scale to create fantastical and dreamlike mindscapes. Opposite the lifts, the ornate, hand-cut, wooden Gates of Paradise II – VII evoke the often referred to threshold or gateway to the heavens. Something About Paradise and Gates of Paradise are an invitation to reflect on areas of commonality in our frequently polarised society and to open up possibilities for a profound and hopeful dialogue between people.
Flanked by foliage, Abaabil, 2020, made of painted bronze, speaks of the universal human desire to fly and the fascination with feathered beings. Birds took root in Qureshi’s imagination through the myths of his childhood. According to an ancient tale, the abaabil birds are a divinely-inspired flock, who defeated a large army by dropping burning pebbles upon them. The abaabil can be said to combine matter and aura, existing in two different dimensions – one physical and one cultural. Abaabil also alludes to metaphorical flight: that of the mind through imagination and learning, activities which we engage in both privately or collectively and which hold a special fascination for Qureshi as an artist.
Saad Qureshi received his BA in Fine Art from Oxford Brookes University in 2007 and an MFA in Painting from The Slade School of Fine Art, London, in 2010.
Recent solo exhibitions include: The Djanogly Gallery (at Lakeside Arts, Nottingham University) (2024); Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival (2024); Nature Morte Gallery, New Delhi (2022), Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2020). Group exhibitions include the Aga Khan Centre Gallery, London (2023); Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen (2021); Museum Arnhem, Netherlands (2020); I’Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris (2019); Drawing Room, London (2019); White Project Gallery, Paris (2014).
Winner of The Frieze & The OWO Sculpture Prize, Convocation is on view at Raffles London. In 2023, Saad Qureshi was commissioned to realise a permanent Organ Donor Memorial for the Royal London Hospital at Whitechapel. He was shortlisted for the 2021 SkyArts LANDMARKS public art prize, and has realised public commissions at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford and for LandSec at Victoria, London.
‘Of Paradise and Other Places’ is at Howick Place from June 2024 to December 2024.