Invasion Ecology

Invasion Ecology is a season of contemporary land art on Dartmoor that questions what we mean by ‘native’ and what it means to belong - reimagining more empathic connections between humans, plants, animals and landscapes.

At the centre of the programme is an exhibition on display at Southcombe Barn - an arts space and gardens located in Widecombe-in-the-Moor on the edge of Dartmoor. Artists include Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert and Ashanti Hare, with works spanning installation, performance, moving image and photography.

Presented by Radical Ecology and Southcombe Barn, the programme interrogates the notion of Invasion Ecology - a term first coined by Charles Elton in his 1958 study ‘The ecology of invasions by animals and plants’ which initiated the thinking around native and invasive species which has since become mainstream. The exhibition and wider programme adopt decolonial, land-based inquiry to begin rethinking our relation to place and landscape. By casting a long lens on history - back to the formation of continents - and focusing on the exploitation and displacement of plants and people, the programme seeks to challenge the ‘othering’ of species by deconstructing binary distinctions between terms such as ‘native’ and ‘invasive’.

“Invasion Ecology encourages us to dig beneath the human/nature binary, to see not only how we are fundamentally part of our environments, but the deeper contradiction in our efforts as a species to segregate ourselves (and our responsibilities) from those environments. Simultaneous to the exploitation of natural resources - something which depends on our detachment from the land - the propagation of popular arts, culture, and languages which speak of what and who is ‘native’ - or not - suggest how our roots are inescapably entangled.”

- Vashti Cassinelli and Jelena Sofronijevic, curators of Invasion Ecology

The season begins on 1 May with a dawn chorus performance from artist Hanna Tuulikki. The programme continues with a solo photographic exhibition, Wild Campers, in May by activist and photographer Fern Leigh Albert. Wild Campers follows a group of land rights protesters, Right to Roam, who in 2024 battled to reclaim the right to wild camp on Dartmoor. The group exhibition, Invasion Ecology, is on display in June when Southcombe gardens also open to the public as part of the National Garden Scheme.

Decolonial discussion and workshops will take place throughout the duration of the shows from exhibiting artists as well as authors, gardeners and foragers. Ashanti Hare brings their sell-out ‘River That Never Rests’ performance to a live environment as ‘River That Never Rests: Iteration II’ on Southcombe’s grounds. Conceived around the River Exe, Hare performs as a sentient river which becomes ‘the watcher who connects the physical with documented histories of Exeter and the wider south west; other worlds; the many oral histories of global majority people and wildlife that travel to and through it’. A participatory performance developed by Radical Ecology will look at how and why the language of native and invasive species in our gardens became so pervasive. This performance will tour arts venues across Devon and Cornwall.

The programme opens with Hanna Tuulikki’s performance on 1 May 2024, followed by Fern Leigh Albert’s solo exhibition, Wild Campers, from 10 - 25 May 2024.

It continues with the group exhibition, Invasion Ecology, on view from 1 June - 10 August 2024.