Practice Ethos
It all begins with the body in a relationship with mind, matter, memory, metaphor and expresses itself through solo and collaborative manifestations.
The embodied, the experiential, the experimental, the exploratory - these are the daily curations which Miche and Flora flow through as performative fabulists and visual arts practitioners whose artistic exchanges range between art studios, a kitchen apothecary, the landscapes of garden, field and water bodies. All these engagements enliven the experience of an artful sympoiethic sensibility which welcomes in the serendipitous, the unknown and the emergent - thus cultivating a methodology of the intuitive nourished by the living aesthetics of everyday life.
Studio Fabre Hardy’s body of practice is multi-media and site-responsive in approach. Artworks include visual markmaking, scriptings, chrysalis drawings, photomontage and collage, films and ritual performances, convivial actions and interventions, participatory installations and found artefacts and assemblages.
Inspirational exchanges offer reciprocal and invaluable collaborations which are mutually complementary and flourishing of practices. Working alongside other fine artists, filmmakers, musicians, writers, researchers, curators and commissioners the collaborations are represented within installations, happenings, shows, events and journals pieces and books.
“The work of Studio Fabre & Hardy is an expression of genuine love and connection made real through a flow of the tactile and the spiritual, woven with making, writing, speaking and nurturing. No matter the context (studio, gallery, field, hospital) their works are a simplicity of form and material conversation elevated to a plane of a new consciousness through human exchange.”
Andy Robinson, Head of Strategy at FutureCity
Sympoiethics in the everyday
Our art is our life work and is embodied in the everyday through practising the concept of sympoiethics. Sympoiethics recognises humanity’s intimate interdependence with our ecosystems and cultivates embodied practices of 'con vivere’ or ways of living well together.
In biology sympoiesis defines the interconnected nature of ecosystems which come into being through entanglement, coproduction and cooperation. Ethics derives from ethos which means a dwelling place where people come to know and create together.
Living sympoiethically enlivens our capacity for practising a daily ethics of care which respects the integrity of each other, the sentient matter of our Earth and the habitats we dwell within.
Artists’ statements
Miche Fabre Lewin
Miche Fabre Lewin (BA; Dip. Art Therapy; PhD) devises artful rituals and installations in recognition of our entangled sentience with matter, spirit and place. Tuning into the rhythms, energies and experiences of her life, she creates works which are celebrations of the archetypal and the everyday – embodied expressions of a sympoiethics of care.
“My studio practice is dedicated to cultivating my own responsibility as an artist, a re-searcher, as a human being. For this I need an ecology of practices. This needs energy – I have to do this with my passion and will. Actively do it, regularly. These practices are wrought, made, they are experimental and innovative, they are what it means to nurture a politics of consciousness to counter our amnesia. It is through practices with the body and matter, which I am inviting everybody to inhabit in their own way. This interconnectedness is about enriching ourselves and relating to each other with abundance and celebration.”
“Miche’s ecological and creative sensibilities, always intertwined, are now attracting an ever-widening audience and gaining increasing influence both nationally and internationally. This is because the creative themes that she has been exploring through her artworks and rituals over the years have an increasing political currency. She was one of the first to imagine how and what this could be – and indeed embody through her practice work.”
Professor Julian Henriques, Department of Media, Communications and Cultural Studies, Goldsmiths, University of London
Flora Gathorne-Hardy
“My work as an artist arises from her passion for geography and land husbandry. Her drawings are intuitive divinations which evoke the subtle and invisible energies of place and human interactions. Her performances and installations make visible the body’s belonging within the natural-cultural world exploring my bodymind as a sensor through drawings and installations, performative responses and music making.”
Flora Gathorne-Hardy
Flora Gathorne-Hardy’s work as an artist arises from her passion for geography and land husbandry. Her drawings are intuitive divinations which evoke the subtle and invisible energies of place and human interactions. Her performances and installations make visible the body’s belonging within the natural-cultural world.
“I studied initially as a geographer and plants-woman, following through to train as a Landscape Architect and set up an ecological landscape practice. My PhD at the University of Cambridge explored the potential of community design as a pathway towards socially just environments. As a landscape practitioner, my work in the UK and internationally responded and promoted biodiversity in the city. Projects include playable spaces, habitats for healing and community-led ecological restoration. Through my collaboration with Miche, I am now exploring my bodymind as a sensor through drawings and installations, performative responses and music making.” Flora, 2021
Statement about Flora.
Practice Resume
Recent awards and residencies
Life of Water residency and exhibition as part of Alive in the Universe, Venice Biennale 2019
Equal Justice research residency at the Santa Fa Arts Institute residency 2018
Life of Water Artsists in Residence, Aldeburgh Lookout 2018
Artists in Residence, Centre for Future Thinking, Hawkwood, UK 2017 and 2018
Living Cultures research residency, Sustainability Institute, Lyndoche, South Africa 2016/2017
Returning to Source residency, Aerial Studios, Johannesburg 2016
PULSE residency, Stellenbosch University, 2016
CIWEM special commendation 2015
Blue Soil Shrine, CCANW Soil Culture Residency, Bristol, UK, 2015
Book of Nature research residency with FutureCity for Guys and St Thomas’ Hospital, London, 2014
Soil Silica Soul Residency with Biodynamic Association, UK, 2014
Living Soil Shrine residency at the Living Soil Forum, Ytterjarna, Sweden, 2013
Life Collection residency at Main Street Life, Maboneng, 2012
Re-Birth residency at NIROX Foundation, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa 2012
Re-Naturing the City residency with the Bag Factory, Johannesburg 2012
Selection of recent exhibitions, events and performances
2018 Poetics of Ritual workshop with Crossfields International, Emerson College, UK
2017 Everything is Here installation as part of Ecovention Europe exhibition, Sittard, Belgium
2017 Taking the Pulse presentation and participatory installation at Leadership, Ethics and Working with Unknowing: an international conference, UWE Bristol, UK
2017 Agroecology Indaba at the Sustainability Institute, Lynedoch Valley, South Africa
2016 Living Cultures doctoral Research Residency with the Sustainability Institute, Lynedoch Valley, South Africa
2016 First Know Food doctoral research collaboration with the Centre for Complex Systems in Transition (CST) and the Stockholm Institute, Stellenbosch University
2016 Artful Inquiry workshop lead by Miche Fabre Lewin for doctorate students in Organisational Change, Ashridge College, UK
2015 Presentation of Soil Saturday Film at Why Soil Matters International Conference, European Parliament, Brussels
2015 Presentation of participatory workshop at Landscaping Change, Bristol, UK
2015 Soil Saturdays, Co-curators with CCANW for UN International Year of the Soil, Bristol, UK
2015 Collaborative Design Laboratory, CAWR, Coventry University, UK
2014 In the Body of Food course programme with Masters in Narrative Leadership, Central St Martins College
2014 Seeds to Live By: food freedom beyond GM, convivial food happening, Hawkwood College, UK
2014 Tasting Knowleding participatory installation at Research in Early Childhood Education and Social Pedagogy, Alanus University of Arts and Social Sciences, Germany
2013 Food Land and Healing course, Hawkwood College, UK
2013 Renaturing the City Forum for Inspiration, Garden Organic, UK
2013 Renaturing the City Forum for Inspiration, Platform London, UK
2012 Cooking, Culture and Conversations, Miche Fabre Lewin's TED Soweto talk
2012 Hands in Soil workshop and performancs with Kofifi Theatre Company and Trevor Huddleston Memorial Centre, Sophiatown, South Africa
2012 Food of the Land Artist Residency, at Emergence Conference: Art & Sustainability, Centre for Alternative Technology, UK
2012 TasteGarden installation with the Biodynamic Association at Embercombe Centre, UK
2012 (dis)locations: (trans)formations exhibition at the Bag Factory, Johannesburg