Nottingham Contemporary presents John Newling Ecologies of Value, an exhibition on view 26 January–7 April 2013.
Nottingham-based John Newling belongs to a generation of artists whose work evolved in the wake of Conceptual Art, Land Art and Arte Povera. His first major survey exhibition presents a selection of his work from the 1970s to the present day. Working with readymades, social and horticultural processes, questions and paradoxes, Newling’s process-based and participatory projects ask questions of the values we value and their interrelationships: socio-political, ecological, spiritual and financial.
The first section of his exhibition includes replicas of high street cash machines made in copper, large glass bowls stained with the dirt accumulated on 50,000 two pence coins, and glass cabinets lined with Eucharist wine and wafers. New artworks in the second section of the exhibition are inspired by natural and ecological systems. For his exhibition he has grown and harvested over eighty Brassica Oleracea, or Walking Stick Cabbages, which grow up to 12 feet high. Seen in various stages of growth and decay during the exhibition, Newling is interested in their value for human use. Other plant-based sculptures include two hydroponic growth tents containing Moringa Oleifera, or Miracle Trees, a continuation of an earlier project at Nottingham Contemporary. Native to the foothills of the Himlayas, the plant is uniquely generous for human healing and nutrition. The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication on Newling’s work—the first to present an overview of his work—written and edited by Richard Davey, published in partnership with Nottingham Trent University.
Nottingham Contemporary
Weekday Cross
Nottingham NG1 2GB
www.nottinghamcontemporary.org