Pollinating London Together hosted a week-long art exhibition to celebrate pollinators, which included my artwork.
I was delighted to collaborate with the amazing charity Pollinating London Together, to display my artwork at their fundraising exhibition.
The Press Release outlining the full details, I have included here:
Pollinating London Together, the initiative officially launched at Mansion House in 2021 to optimise green space opportunities for pollinators in The City of London, will be hosting a week-long art exhibition to celebrate pollinators – in The City. The shared goal of the initiative, alongside artist Alex Hirtzel, and venue host Rev Paul Kennedy of St Vedast-alias-Foster is to help City of London pollinators and people thrive by (re)creating healthy ecological habitats in the City’s green spaces.
The exhibition at St Vedast-alias-Foster in the City will feature multimedia art by Alex Hirtzel, an international artist who has dedicated her work to the incredible world of pollinators. Her work fuses classical painting methods with augmented reality, as well as references to historical artworks with recent scientific research.
Wonderful Dr Suzanne Harkins kindly showing the Augmented Reality to new friends.edit;
Photo credit; Andy Sillett
Image copyright Alex Hirtzel Title Unblocked Pastorialist (2D version)
When viewed in person, guests will be able to experience her art coming to life in 3D augmented reality format when viewed through a smart phone.
The show will be free, and open from Friday 1st April 2022 to Thursday 7th April 2022, 10am – 3pm by kind permission of Rev Paul Kennedy, Priest in Charge, St Vedast-alias-Foster, near Mansion house, EC2V 6HH. No booking is required.
Alex’s recent work, which was first shown last summer at the University of Bristol Botanic Gardens, uses novel techniques to create a narrative of pollinators. As a Pollinating London Together Ambassador, she is offering a unique opportunity to celebrate the joy and complexity of pollinators in artistic form, whilst learning about the different sensory modalities used by pollinators to interact with flowering plants. She hopes that guests will join the conversation as to how we can improve pollinator habitats and the future of pollinators in the City of London.
‘Beetrice’ was painted by Alex to represent the importance of the connections between insects and plants, as well as the importance of creating corridors for wildlife. The eyes represent the genetic code of red Mason bees. Having been displayed at the Mansion House over the last year, the sculpture is now on tour courtesy of the charity Bees for Development and will be at the exhibition in April.
Alex Hirtzel comments:
“The aims of Pollinating London Together and myself align brilliantly. We are looking to excite a broad understanding (and planting) of the ecosystem of pollinators, and the vital and complex role they play globally. The significance of the connection between insects such as pollinators with butterflies, birds and flowering plants is so complex and extraordinary, and this is what inspires my work.”
Rev Paul Kennedy adds: “I am excited that such an inspiring artist as Alex will be exhibiting at Saint Vedast. Both she and I believe that we can recover the ecosystems around us, just as our church here recovered from the Blitz. Her message of regeneration and rebirth is bold and will hopefully lead cities like our own to a better future.”
Paintings on view will be available for sale. A portion of the sales proceeds will be kindly donated by Alex Hirtzel to Pollinating London Together.
There is no charge for this event, however donations to support Pollinating London Together are welcome: click hereto make a one-off donation. Pollinating London Together is a livery project part-funded and governed by the Wax Chandlers Charitable Trust: Charity Registration Number 278164.
photo credits; Andrew Cleminson