Opening on 2 December 2022 at 5

2 December - 18 December 2022
Open in the weekends from 1 to 5
and on appointment during the week

Betula spp. investigates a different approach to ecological fieldwork, with a focus on the genus Betula (birch). During Milah van Zuilen’s residency at Tuo Tuo, in Joutsa (Finland), the bark from fallen or felled birch trees was collected. The bark was dried, peeled into layers, cut into little squares and arranged into grids.

Milah gathers plant material according to self-imposed rules, and seeks similarities between scientific and artistic ways of looking at landscapes. The material gets transformed into squares and grids, referring to the shapes that characterise a very human perspective and presence. The square shapes and straight lines, paradoxically, emphasise the organic forms and patterns in the plant material. Also being a forest ecologist in training, the artist strives to bring the fields of art and ecology closer to each other, and to find another way of looking at the landscape - more earth-centered, rather than anthropocentric.

Milah van Zuilen graduated in Fine Arts & Photography from the Willem de Kooning Academy. Her graduation project 'Terrafuturism' won the 2021 Ron Mandos Young Blood Award and was acquired by Museum Voorlinden. She is also a co-founder of Jaro Milire, a space for ecology-related artist residencies in the Czech Republic. She is represented by Galerie Caroline O’Breen.

As part of this show, a series of 20 framed originals are available for sale in collector’s boxes, together with a folder containing a dried birch leaf and a leaflet providing insights into the artist’s method and research.