HARBINGER / An Installation of sculpture, sound and drawing / 2025.

Drawing on research into the use of domestic and commercial pesticides in our environment and the complex relationship between humans and birds. The installation sees the artist return to her previous experience as a singer and composer, brought together for the first time alongside material work in sculpture and drawing.

Imagined landscapes explore our physical, bodily connection to the environments we live in, and sit between moorland belonging to nesting curlew, folds of the human body, sands of the bay and monoculture grasslands. A vocal piece experienced inside an iron shed is made in response to birdsong. In it a duality of joy and sadness.

Waste cardboard forms inspired by analogue listening devices and amplifiers hold aloft nests of dog hair contaminated with Fipronil, a chemical in pet flea treatment. This hair is collected by songbirds to line their nests, causing their chicks to die. Fake puddings and oversized, shiny fruits on discarded agricultural machinery parts consider the symbolism of the apple and the environmental price we pay to eat ‘perfect’ food.

Juxtaposing textures and forms convey prescribed neatness opposing wildness, and chemical cleanliness pitched against the natural environments that sustain life.

Exhibited at BEACH Morecambe in March 2025 and commissioned by Deco Publique and The CoLab in collaboration with Lancaster Institute of Contemporary Art. This work is part of the Morecambe Bay Coastal Commissioning Programme.

Photographed by Robin Zahler