Imagining the Amazon is a site-specific installation of paintings and monotypes by Tamsin Relly, curated by Alteria Art in the Garden Room at The Collective, House of St Barnabas. The series explores the relationships between wild and cultivated jungle environments; and the preservation of these ecosystems through conservation, remote constructed greenhouses and our imaginations. While celebrating the wonder and bio-diversity of life in the world’s rainforests, Relly’s work considers the fragility and decline of these habitats through deforestation and climate change.
Set against the backdrop of the rainforest-inspired wallpaper of the Garden Room, the work reflects on how notions of exotic environments are woven into the everyday through art, design and popular culture. ‘I’ve always taken comfort in the idea of wilderness, but as more of our natural spaces are cultivated, developed or polluted, perhaps any truly untouched nature is at risk of living only in our imaginations.’
The exhibition runs until 23 June 2017. Find full press release and viewing details here.