Lichen Exists

Part of Earth Spells: Witches of the Anthropocene Exhibition at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum 2023

Artists featured in this exhibition: Caroline Achaintre, Emma Hart, Kris Lemsalu, Mercedes Mühleisen, Grace Ndiritu, Florence Peake, Kiki Smith, Lucy Stein.

Through the work of eight contemporary artists, Earth Spells explored emotional, spiritual and otherworldly connections to nature and our entanglement with it. The cauldron in RAMM’s collection was once owned by the self-identified ‘White Witch of Dartmoor’, Elizabeth Webb. It was the central focus for this exhibition and helped us reflect on how we can support a symbiotic relationship with plants. Webb would have used the pot for creating herbal, healing remedies.

During their research to create new work for the exhibition, the artists, Hart, Peake and Stein, made visits to RAMM’s stores where they held the cauldron and ‘felt its aura’. Describing herself as a half-witch or artist/witch, Lucy Stein’s vibrant paintings conjure up a sense of wildness, challenging us to stop ‘controlling’ or ‘civilising’ the natural world. Hart’s ceramic sculptural forms draw comparisons between the witch’s spell and the words of climate activists to incite change.

Many of the artistic practices in Earth Spells are shaped and informed by a reconnection with nature and a respect for traditional ecological knowledge usually held by indigenous communities. Both Ndiritu and Peake explore alternative belief systems by working with and inhabiting shamanic practices.