THE SHIMMER
“Did you know the South Downs used to be blue”, a stranger asked me. I did not. I was later told that this blue-shimmer effect was caused by the vast Chalk Hill Blue butterfly populations that used to inhabit the very hills that watch over Sussex. This sight has long disappeared however, muffled by human interventions to the landscape. Although spontaneously emerging against all odds in 2012, the South Downs have not regularly turned blue for almost 100 years. The Shimmer explores in tandem both the emotional experience of the imagined phenomena alongside social historical shifts in relationships to ecology. Shifts so big that now the land itself cannot sustain the very spectacle that my mind endeavours to imagine.
I will be exhibiting “The Shimmer” project in July at The Seven Sisters Visitors Centre. Not only will this show coincide with the official start of the year’s butterfly count but it is also a short walk away from the location of the Shimmer’s last appearance. With the efforts the centre are making in land management to increase butterflies, such as the Chalk Hill Blue, who knows, you might be lucky enough to see it for yourself!
You can find out more info here. Hopefully see you there!
