ACKROYD & HARVEY
2024
Artist signed hand-drawn study in gall ink 
21cm x 15cm
Unique
 
From the crop of acorns collected from the trees in autumn 2023, we made a series of gall ink studies of the emerging radicle ~ the embryonic root of the plant that emerges during the process of germination. Oaks are the host plants for more than 70 species of cynipid gall wasp. It is the larval stage of these insects that induce the plant to produce abnormal growths, known as galls that enclose the developing larvae. These galls are part of the biodiversity a healthy oak tree supports. Once the gall wasps have emerged, the galls can be collected and crushed to produce ink. 
 
Ackroyd & Harvey make interdisciplinary works that combine art, activism, biology, ecology and history, with reference to memory/time, nature/culture and political ecologies. Processes of growth and decay are integral to artworks that evolve through extended research interfacing their long-standing interest in local ecologies and anthropogenic climate change. Recent exhibitions include RA Summer Exhibition, London (2024, 2022); Hayward Gallery, London (2023); Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, USA (2023); Somerset House, London (2022); 23RD Biennale of Sydney (2022); Tate Modern, London (2021). The artists have received many awards for their bio-chemical photographic work and in 2019 co-initiated Culture Declares Emergency.
 
www.ackroydandharvey.com/