General 1 — #irreplaceable

A Series of Callings

The Brief - Ongoing Collection

“It seems to me that the natural world is the greatest source of excitement;
the greatest source of visual beauty;
the greatest source of intellectual interest.
It is the greatest source in so much in life that makes life worth living.”

— David Attenborough

Everywhere in the world people will be aware of special areas of nature, vulnerable to dismantling and ruination to make space for projects of economic growth. Sometimes we have personal connections with these places, creating powerful reasons why we seek their protection. Sometimes, though physically distant to us, we resonate with their stories or value their importance to biodiversity.

The Ongoing Collection is a place where you can submit for exhibition, visual work which speaks of the wondrous qualities of these places and the beings that inhabit them.

We will be updating the collection regularly and so your work will only have a temporary presence affected by the numbers of submissions. Selections will also be shown on the #irreplaceable Instagram and Facebook pages.

The Call - Ongoing Collection

A Calling To Visual Artists In Response To #irreplaceable

Irreplaceable is a world movement that calls on artists of all disciplines, poets, writers and philosophers to come together and explore the urgent catalysts needed to awaken and mobilise the immediate protection and responsibility for the last living remnants of the natural world.

In this call, we invite visual artists to submit work, image or video that falls under the theme irreplaceability.

This Ongoing Collection is constantly curated here as an online exhibition.

Please upload the right way round. No responsibility can be taken by #irreplaceable for any images that are orientated incorrectly.

For video presentation on the site, we use Youtube as a hosting platform.

For more information, see the Ongoing Collection brief above.

Name

First Name

Last Name

Email

Name of artist to be displayed next to work

Title

GDPR

This information can be stored for the purposes of the exhibition.

I agree

Happy for work to be shared on Instagram & Facebook

That's fine

No thanks

Under 16?

Yes

Please ensure file name contains your full name. For images, we accept .JPG, .GIF, or .PNG. For video, we accept .MOV, .MPEG4, .MP4, AVI, .WMV, .MPEGPS, .FLV, .3GPP

The Brief - Losing Track - NOW CLOSED FOR SUBMISSION

“The enemies of the woods are always enemies of culture and humanity.”

— Roger Deakin Wildwood: a Journey through Trees

On 20th October 2020, the felling of the 250 year old Cubbington Pear, probably the oldest wild pear tree in the country, caused a wave of grief across the nation. Described as the “Poster Boy” for the trees destined to be destroyed for HS2, this ancient being was still blossoming and bearing fruit in the last year of its life. Locals had campaigned hard, but HS2 pushed on, confident with their appeasement gesture of taking 40 cuttings, laying down the trunk body to nourish fungi and leaving the stump for possible re-growth.

One hundred and eight woodland sites are predicted to be affected by the project. It is in fact, the biggest deforestation programme in this country since the First World War. And they have promised to plant, in their stead, seven million new saplings and shrubs.

However, the individual trees only represent the tip of what is lost when ancient woodland is destroyed. Vast interconnected ecosystems, embodied with underworld networks of signalling, work socially to maintain and restore health, beauty and balance in the wider natural world.

HS2’s execution of these intricate life systems has been described by ecologists as an enormous act of ecological vandalism.

With specific attention to the HS2 project, we would like you to use this opportunity to submit work that explores the notion of the irreplaceable in the natural world.

If either you feel up close impact, or have empathetic concern from a distance, we value your submission. Whether your response is to the ancient trees that are on HS2’s path or to other precious habitats and their inhabitants that will also be eradicated by the project; woodlands, wetlands, waterways and meadows, scrubland, peat bogs and hedgerows... we ask you to focus on the very things that are irreplaceable when something precious is erased.

Works in all visual media and poetry by artists and poets of all ages and experience is warmly invited for submission. A careful selection is to be curated for an online exhibition on this website. (Our aim is to make further selection for a physical exhibition at a suitable and prestigious gallery when possible.)

The final date for submission is 31st December 2021.

Many thanks for your valuable involvement in this heartfelt Movement.