Complexity is important for our health!

The Squirrel’s Heartbeat

"Michael, I am going to introduce you. And that's not easy, because you are many things and you work in many different fields. But your project is very consistent and focused. So Michael Smythe, artist, activist, producer, horticulturalist... Yeah… When you started to become involved with this space, the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, did you approach it as an artwork in the first place? Or did that grow as the work grew? Because I know that this beautiful Phytology Medical garden that we're sitting looking at here, is a sculptural work and was founded as a sculptural work but it looks like a garden…. of sorts. So I'm intrigued”

If you are intrigued too, listen to this!

Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden..

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio