By Alex Wisser
When the folks at Lyttleton Atelier approached us with the idea of mounting an exhibition of works in progress from the Artist Farmer Scientist project in their window gallery, we very promptly and enthusiastically said yes please. The offer came at a public event hosted by Epicurean Harvest, a small scale organic farming initiative in Hartley that employs the principles of regenerative farming and a partner on AFS. They also supply produce to Lyttleton Stores, a socially conscious food cooperative “encouraging conscious, ethical, local economies as well as transitioning to a no-waste, lower energy future”. The opportunity for us was attractive because it offered us a way of disseminating our work to new audiences along the social network of people connected to the regenerative farmers we were working with - in this instance, a food cooperative that had its own community of shared concern for the environment.
The original offer of an exhibition quickly escalated to include a panel talk, a dinner and a workshop, a common product, we learned, of the inexhaustible energy and commitment of Lyttleton’s Eloise Maree and and other members of the Lyttleton team. If you want to see how much they do in a single month, just check out their events page here.
The exhibition went up a treat. Here are some pictures, but if you get a chance drop by in person. It’s well worth the trip, and besides it will give you the opportunity to experience some of the brilliant produce and artisan handcrafts of Lyttleton Stores.
Diego Bonetto’s wildfood.store took advantage of the context, his foraged wild foods blending in with the other amazing produce being sold at Lyttleton.
Jono Bolitho and Laura Fisher’s work humus: human visualises the mysteries of living soil
Gilbert Grace’s Hemp Initiative, includes this work, Vanitas, made completely of reclaimed hemp paper.
Imogen Semmler’s Farmers in Flux tells the story of farmers attempt to transition to regenerative agriculture.
Georgina Pollard’s Confinement explores the symbolic and material properties of biochar through a living fountain
The opening was a great success, with a large gathering of interested lookers on and an amazing spread of delicious bits before we all hunkered down for our panel talk and the dinner.
And here we all are, lined up and ready to talk our asses off. It was a great discussion in which our differences came to the surface as much as the common threads that hold the whole project together. We will soon put up a video of the talk for those who want a peak into what we have been doing, or think we have been doing
After the talk, we got down to a seriously delicious meal and some even more brilliant conversation. Thank you to everyone at Lyttleton Stores for letting us share our adventure with your community and thank you for the warm hospitality and the beautiful food. See you at the next thing
Fiona Davis made this video of the panel discussion - thanks Fiona!
