Presented by Radical Ecology and Southcombe Barn, Invasion Ecology is a season of contemporary land art coming to Dartmoor from 1 May - 10 August 2024 that questions what we mean by ‘native’ and what it means to belong, reimagining more empathic connections between humans, plants, animals and landscapes.

Alongside a series of performances and events, Invasion Ecology is a group exhibition curated by Vashti Cassinelli and Jelena Sofronijevic that adopts decolonial, land-based inquiry to begin rethinking our relation to place and landscape. Artists include Ingrid Pollard, Iman Datoo, Hanna Tuulikki, Ashish Ghadiali, Fern Leigh Albert and Ashanti Hare, with works spanning installation, performance, moving image and photography.

By casting a long lens on history - back to the formation of continents - and focusing on the exploitation and displacement of plants and people, the programme seeks to challenge the ‘othering’ of species by deconstructing binary distinctions between terms such as ‘native’ and ‘invasive’.

“Invasion Ecology encourages us to dig beneath the human/nature binary, to see not only how we are fundamentally part of our environments, but the deeper contradiction in our efforts as a species to segregate ourselves (and our responsibilities) from those environments. Simultaneous to the exploitation of natural resources - something which depends on our detachment from the land - the propagation of popular arts, culture, and languages which speak of what and who is ‘native’ - or not - suggest how our roots are inescapably entangled.”

- Vashti Cassinelli and Jelena Sofronijevic, curators of Invasion Ecology