Tate Liverpool explores roots of nature and trade in new exhibition
The connections between Liverpool and its trading history are explored through nature in a new exhibition at Tate Liverpool and RIBA North.
The Plant That Stowed Away, running until May 11 at RIBA’s Mann Island venue, reflects on the movement of plants and people across global routes, and the impact of them on the city’s multicultural fabric.
It features works covering two centuries and by artists including William Daniell, Atkinson Grimshaw, Henri Matisse, Lubaina Himid and 2024 Turner Prize nominee Delaine Le Bas.
The exhibition opens with a series of 30 photographic prints by Wirral-born photographer Chris Shaw titled Weeds of Wallasey, captured between 2007 and 2012, which highlight the conflict between nature and the post-industrial landscape in the area where he grew up.
It’s the title of one of these images – I See no Ships but the Plant That Stowed Away – which has informed the overall title of the exhibition.
Co-curator Dr Christine Eyene, senior lecturer in contemporary art at LJMU, is currently researching the movement of plants from the Global South to the West.
She describes Shaw’s eerie images as “work that speaks to the everyday” and that underline the resilience of plants and their co-existence with the urban landscape, water and ships.
The exhibition builds on those ideas, looking at the global movement of plants and other traded products and how urban and natural environments have been changed by industrialisation, colonisation and migration.
Above: A slideshow gallery of images from the exhibition. Top: Chris Shaw's Weeds of Wallasey.
A second series of photographs, Simryn Gill’s Channel, captures a mangrove swamp in Malaysia where branches and roots are festooned with textiles and plastic waste.
Among other works on show are Matisse’s La Danseuse, part of his cut out series of artworks, Wangechi Mutu’s You Were Always on my Mind, Cristina de Middel’s Afro-futurist fictional photographic project Afronauts – inspired by the 1960s Zambian Space Programme, and Kader Attia’s film Oil and Sugar in which a block of white sugar lumps disintegrates after being doused with black oil.
Dr Eyene says: “The Plant that Stowed Away is part of an ongoing research into the theme of Botanical Histories and Colonial Legacies, exploring untold stories on the links between Liverpool and the Global South.
“It’s an amazing opportunity to share these broader narratives with local audiences through great historical and contemporary works from Tate collections.”
The Plant That Stowed Away is at Tate Liverpool and RIBA North until May 11.