The English Woman’s Flora

A new show at Frome’s Black Swan Arts by artist Fiona Hingston explores the beauty of Britain’s vanishing wildflowers.

Part celebration and part lament for what is and increasingly isn’t to be found on the land she calls home, Fiona Hingston’s new body of work, ‘The English Woman’s Flora’, includes more than 200 wildflowers made from masking tape and graphite based on The Observer’s Book of Wild Flowers, a popular pocketbook from the 1960s. The exhibition runs from 7th September to 6th October.

For 20 years Fiona has recorded aspects of the landscape through drawing, photography, found objects and book works. She lives and works in a village on the edge of the Mendip Hills and sees her practice as a slow archaeological enquiry into place and the passage of time. Over the past few years her observations have become disrupted by the growing awareness of a quiet erosion: silent barns, decaying farm buildings, monoculture crops and vanishing flora and fauna. She sees this local loss as directly connecting to wider issues of commercial standardisation and a diminishing of both environmental and cultural diversity. 

Fiona received an MA in research from the University of the West of England in 2006. She was shortlisted for the Jerwood Drawing Prize in 2008 and 2013, and won the Innovation in Drawing Award at Drawn 2013 at the Royal West of England Academy. In 2014 she won the Hauser & Wirth First Prize at Black Swan Arts Open, and was also winner of the Martin Bax Award and Public Vote in 2013.

Fiona’s work on ‘The English Woman’s Flora’ has been supported by Somerset Art Works’ artist development programme, which has enabled her to explore her practice through mentoring, research and dialogues. The show takes place during Somerset Art Weeks Festival (21st September–6th October), which sees a diverse programme of art, workshops, talks, films and installations involving more than 300 artists in over 100 locations across Somerset.

The preview takes place on Friday 6th September from 6–8pm – everyone is welcome to come along. There will also be a meet the artist event on Thursday 26th September from 11am–3pm. For further information please visit www.blackswanarts .org.uk.