Shifting Landscapes re/interview

“Take care of yourself out there,” a thoroughly wrapped-up barista whispers as he hands me an immediately cooled-off oat cappuccino on a Friday morning. You can tell winter has arrived, and since his festively decorated coffee stand is pretty much outside, overlooking the River Thames, I wish him good luck and dash away, carried by the swift current of my thoughts. My senses are already on edge, yet I feel them becoming more alert as I step into Bargehouse, an old industrial building just around the corner. My hurried pace slowly dissipates.

“We wanted to create a space that brings you out of the frenzied environment that we find ourselves in,” says Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, a founder of Emergence magazine and curator of Shifting Landscapes (1st — 10th of December 2023), an immersive exhibition supporting the release of its fourth issue of the same title. Founded in 2018, the magazine explores the connections between ecology, culture and spirituality. The exhibition stands as a testament to this exploration, presenting works by nine artists who delve into human relationships with the more-than-human world; they highlight the innate interspecies interconnectedness that, at this particular moment in time, is critical to acknowledge and restore as we — hopefully — start moving away from human centrism and exceptionalism.