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Exhibitions
Nature’s Tangled Web
10 May – 13 Sep 2025
Showing in Sunderland Creatives Gallery
Quick summary
- Price
- Free
- Running time
- 10:00 - 17:00
- Venue
-
- National Glass Centre
Additional information
Event description
An exhibition of work by Mike Collier, accompanied by Tom Jordan and Jane Young.
Nature’s Tangled Web features work by Mike Collier dating back to the 2010s that is previously unseen in the North East. Tom Jordan is contributing new, intricately woven patterns that reflect our knotted relationship to culture and natural heritage. Jane Young is showing new work based on closely observed natural occurrences noted on walks in the Derwent Valley, seen and heard on her year-long residency at Lockhaugh Farm in Gateshead.
About Mike Collier:
Mike is Emeritus Professor of Art and Ecology and the University of Sunderland.
About Tom Jordan:
Tom is an artist and former student of Mike’s. He has been collaborating with him on his most recent work.
About Jane Young:
Jane is an artist and a PhD student of Mike’s who will graduate in 2026.
Image credit – Mike Collier, The Birkdale Nightingale, 2015, Digital print on paper. Produced in collaboration with EYELEVEL Creative. Courtesy of the Artist.
The colloquial names for flora and fauna are often a poetic reminder of a closer understanding and feeling for the natural environment we once had, and they frequently refer to the look, behaviour or sound of the bird. For instance, one of the many colloquial names for a swift is DEVILING – perhaps because of its inaccessibility; its speed in flight. The name WASHTAIL (Pied Wagtail) arises from the similarity between the constant up-and-down movement of the bird’s tail and the action of dipping and lifting made by a person washing or scrubbing clothes (or dishes) by the waterside. Avocets utter loud yelping cries when disturbed, hence YARWHELP; SPARLING makes reference to the harsh call of the Common Tern and LAVEROCK (Skylark) is from Middle English laverok and Old English lāwerce, lark.