Wednesday 7^thSeptember

From the Garden: A Beginners Guide to Eco-Printing with Marjolaine Ryley, plus Phytocentric with Feral Practice.

Time - 10:30am - 3:30pm

10 places available

This workshop introduces how you can make your own botanical inks, photo emulsions and use plants for contact printing to create your own eco-prints. We will look at how you can use easy to grow or buy vegetables, plants and flowers (and often kitchen scraps). Creating sustainable materials and artworks can enhance your mood and well-being, connect you with nature and creativity and generate gorgeous colours and patterns that can be surprising and delightful.

During the day there will be an opportunity to join Feral Practice for Phytocentric, a participatory performance thinking humans towards the plants, using spoken word, touch and gesture. It draws together scientific, poetic and spiritual understandings of plants, and nurtures imaginative vegetal conversations. Vibrant material meetings and exchanges occur at every level of our bodies and worlds but often go un-regarded, or unknown. If we sensitize ourselves (as vegetal philosopher Michael Marder advises) to the fuzzy edges of our subjectivity in order to meet beings very different to ourselves, might it be in the wilds of the imagination that we can re-align with nonhuman nature?

Thursday 8^thSeptember (morning)

The Sustainable Darkroom

Time - 10am - 12:30pm

12 places available

Ticket price - £35

Herbal Chemigrams: foraging to make photographic developer for chemigrams and tea infusions with The Sustainable Darkroom

In this workshop we will be foraging plants from the grounds at Hestercombe Gardens, with which we will make a plant-based developer as well as a herbal tea to enjoy during the workshop. We will be using the plant-based developer to make chemigrams; abstract, camera less photographic images. This workshop is an opportunity to splash about and create one-of-a-kind prints, while also learning how to make a plant-based developer. No prior experience needed.

During the workshop, Hannah from The Sustainable Darkroom will discuss the science behind making a plant-based developer and as well as the medical benefits of the plants we are working with.

Thursday 8^thSeptember (afternoon)

Artists Discussion

Time - 1:30pm - 5pm

Ticket price - £12

50 places available

During this informal gathering, artists Brendan Barry, Feral Practice, John Newling, Sophy Rickett and Marjolaine Ryley will share insights into their practice and work they've made at Hestercombe; reflecting on the themes of the exhibition with special guest Hannah Fletcher of The Sustainable Darkroom and curators Kate Best and Tim Martin.

The afternoon will feature a series of short talks, an artists-led walk into the gardens, where among other activities John Newling will present his Hestercombe Gardens Soil Book. Refreshments will be provided, as we end the event with a group discussion.