The Night Books are a reflection on the months of lock downs; of fearful sleep and the terrible fear that my species cannot respond to, or accept, the changes needed in the relationship between us and nature. The work is a development of my involvement with ‘Two Minutes to Midnight’, an ecological research group based in Paris.
Read MoreI have long been absorbed by the thought that under our feet is soil of such complexity that we have yet to understand all the effect and affects of the earth; it is a material that carries a language in and through nature.
Read MoreNow, in a thought-provoking co-commission by Brighton Festival, composers Sally Beamish and Lisa Heute have linked a selection of these letters using a series of pieces for solo cello.
Read MoreThis exhibition features works spanning Newling’s 40 year career, including new work responding to society’s need to evolve in the face of the climate emergency, and living through the global pandemic.
Read MoreBirmingham-born artist John Newling (b. 1952) is a pioneer of public art with a social purpose. This major exhibition exemplifies his strong environmental proposition, whilst pushing at the boundaries of what defines art.
Read MoreLaunching Artcore Gallery’s opening show post lockdown, exhibiting the work of prominent artist and sculptor, John Newling.
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In May 2020 I bought manual soil corer, a tool widely used to take soil samples at varying depths for analysis and research. I am absorbed by the thought that under our feet is a material of such extraordinary complexity. We have yet to understand the languages of the soil.
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Trying to find where here is was installed in Tocil Wood, alongside the grounds of Warwick University. It is a permanent work commissioned for the Warwick art collection.
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In 2016 I was invited to be resident as part of the Diep Haven residency. I was asked if I may be interested in working with a co-operative of flax farmers based in and around Dieppe.
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Dear Nature is a book consisting of 81 letters to nature written over 81 days.
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During 2018 I have been working on 3 works commissioned by the Warwick Art Collection.
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Value, Coin, Note and Eclipse 2011-2012 has been selected for Criminal Ornamentation: Yinka Shonibare MBE curates the Arts Council Collection.
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I showed five works that reconfigured the Moringa Oifera trees grown in the ‘Ecologies of Value’ installation at the Exchange gallery, Penzance.
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I installed Eliot’s Note books and Eliot’s Soil in Coventry Cathedral and Eliot’s Last Draft In the Herbert Gallery. Eliot’s Last Draft was a new work made for the Warwick and Coventry edition of this exhibition.
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This Hestercombe Gallery exhibition attempts to unearth the unique perspectives and pathways that eight artists have taken in responding to the world around us.
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Crossings: Art and Christianity Now
9th February-10th May 2018 - Curated by Fr Matthew Askey
Another Language: Be kind Be needed Be loved
Another Language: Be kind Be needed Be loved at Southwell Minster for Crossings create a conversation across the centuries with the famous “Southwell Leaves” stone carvingsin the Chapter House - these ancient carvings are a medieval masterpiece of naturalistic carving in stone. John has invented a new language in the form of a font, inspired by the Nymans Garden where he has worked previously. Each letter in the alphabet is represented by a leaf or a flower and a simple sentence is spelled out here around 26 niches in the Chapter House. The key to the sentence can be found in the marble artwork of the whole alphabet John has installed at the centre of the Education Garden in the grounds of the Minster. There is a second artwork outside that connects the garden of the Chapter House carvings with the Education Garden in the Minster grounds.
John Newling says:
My work at Southwell Minster, in part, explores the affects that I believe organised religion has had on our relationship with Nature. This is, perhaps exemplified in a couple of examples from my Dear Nature letters. The ‘Letters to Nature’ works are an element of a current project in development.
Dear Nature
In truth we slowly ignored you as our need for something greater than ourselves evolved the narratives and rituals of our religions. We could only find some sort of trust in reflections of ourselves.
But these are going now and we are left in the strangest nihilism without purpose and feeling; disconnected. If only we had understood that you were greater than we are. I think we needed to be needed for something but forgot where we were.
What to do?
Yours,
John
Dear Nature
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
This is my guilt and worry. We have filled the earth. We have subdued it. We do rule over it.
What is the cost to ourselves of subduing all that we seem to encounter? Yours is a vast history, ours is a blink in that history. Perhaps that’s where the hope lies in our geological youth; we are young and still learning.
I am sorry
Yours,
John
My hope is that by introducing a different language into this beautiful space resonant with images of the natural world I may connect the text to the space through its visual history; a connection that seeks to continue our urgent conversation with Nature.
The exhibition is the culmination of a three year project designed to develop a pioneering approach to curating
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Eliot’ Soil is a major new work by John Newling. Starting in April 2017 Newling has transformed many copies of The Wasteland into sustainable soil.
Read More‘Be Kind; Be needed; Be loved’ was the final work in my three residency at the Barn in Banchory, Aberdeenshire.
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I am delighted to be able to say that Nymans; A Language from the Garden has been received well and is being enjoyed by visitors to the Nymans Garden in West Sussex and by people who have downloaded the Nymans font.
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