The Squirrel’s Heartbeat

Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press
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Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England

Episodes

  1. 03/17/2021

    The Tai Treeist

    Fiona Banner speaks to Johanna Gibbons landscape architect at J&L Gibbons and author of Conversations on Urban Forestry about her love of trees, soil and the world wide wood. Recorded at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve (Phytology) Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.   Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve TrustHost and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

    18 min

  2. 02/11/2021

    Complexity is important for our health!

    "Michael, I am going to introduce you. And that's not easy, because you are many things and you work in many different fields. But your project is very consistent and focused. So Michael Smythe, artist, activist, producer, horticulturalist... Yeah… When you started to become involved with this space, the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, did you approach it as an artwork in the first place? Or did that grow as the work grew? Because I know that this beautiful Phytology Medical garden that we're sitting looking at here, is a sculptural work and was founded as a sculptural work but it looks like a garden…. of sorts. So I'm intrigued” If you are intrigued too, listen to this! Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden.. Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.   Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve TrustHost and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

    21 min

  3. 01/19/2021

    The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog

    Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press discusses good hair days, bad hair days, foxes, nature, language, the internet, lockdown, anxiety, isolation, and the environment with Dr Omar Kholeif; author, curator and cultural historian, whose recent book Art in the Age of Anxiety is now available and is brilliant. Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden.. Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.   Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve TrustHost and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

    35 min

  4. 12/14/2020

    A tree is never going to be a curator, or is it?

    Welcome to The Squirrel's Heartbeat, with Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press and Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries. Fiona and Lucia met recently at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve and talked about stuff. The title of this series comes from a George Eliot quote which Lucia referred to during this conversation, “If we had a keen vision and a feeling of all ordinary human life it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence… As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” It stuck with Fiona as a meditation on language, the medium of their discussion and also the topic of it... but it is also about naming, and in turn classification, and in turn gender (Mary Ann Evans took the name George Eliot in order in order to create an ambiguity around her gender), and in turn the non-binary nature of nature itself and the conundrums we have in naming it or attributing words to it. Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.   General Ecology is the Serpentine’s long-term and ongoing project researching complexity, more-than-humanism, climate justice and environmental balance. Founded in 2018, General Ecology is a strategic effort to embed environmental subjects and methods throughout the Galleries’ outputs, structures and networks. General Ecology concerns itself simultaneously with environmental and organisational ecologies. Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve TrustHost and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

    32 min

  5. 12/10/2020

    Trailer

    Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.

    1 min

Trailer

About

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England

Information

  • Creator
    Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2021
  • Episodes
    5
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Fiona Banner Studios
  • Show Website
    The Squirrel’s Heartbeat