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Willa Downing – In the Crook of a Tree

Seven And A Half Acres

Seven And A Half Acres is a contemplation on Darts Hill Garden, an intersection of nature and culture.  

Elizabeth Carefoot — Mushrooms

Mushrooms are magical and mysterious.  They grow quietly in the damp and dark earth, and then suddenly pop up with strange colours and shapes. Alice in Wonderland ate one when she was in her own hole in the earth, bravely – because some are poisonous, and then she popped up herself!

(bisque-fired clay, non-toxic acrylic paint, silicone glue, sticks)

Willa Downing — In The Crook Of A Tree 

This work is inspired by the tiny flower-petal nests made in the ground by a rare species of mason bee, Osmia avosetta, each created to swaddle a single larva with food and warmth. So extravagantly beautiful. Imagine living in a cocoon-like nest surrounded by colour, tucked instead into the crook of a tree.

(flower petals, copper wire, floral foam; or fabric, yarn, twigs)

Willa Downing — Knees

Ceramic knees congregate in the midst of knees of the swamp cypress tree.

(stoneware, underglaze, underglaze pencil, glaze)

Lesley Garratt — That’s How It Goes

That’s How It Goes is an installation of canvas-wrapped trees in the Upper Orchard that documents historical human intervention on the landscape with silhouettes of artifacts, architecture, everyday objects and human actions taken from across the globe and across the ages, set against a real and imagined landscape.

Cora Li-Leger — Apparitions

Apparitions arise from death and decay.

(rhododendron leaves and mixed media)

Cora Li-Leger — Remembrance

Silent sentinels, witnesses of seasons passed and harbingers of seasons to come.

(magnolia leaves and mixed media)

Don Li-Leger — Invasive Species

4-channel audio: With special thanks to Tina Pearson

Claire Moore — Emily

 “I clung to earth and her dear shapes, her density, her herbage, her juice. I wanted her volume and I wanted to hear her throb” –  Emily Carr. 1945

(moss, vines and wire on holly hedge)

Deb Putman — Gift of the Trees

Wind frees the air. Rainwater nourishes. / Tree leaves eat sun’s fire / on the apple orchard lane. / Words bear witness as filaments bind together. / Nature made / manmade / Beauty, shade, and oxygen we breathe. / The gift of trees, arrests our senses.

Willa Downing – In the Crook of a Tree

Z·inc gratefully acknowledges the support of the City of Surrey’s Cultural Grants Program and the Darts Hill Garden Conservancy Trust Society.