'Roots' by Sasha Ballon, Anuschka Barlas, Alexandra Beteeva, Mira Knoche and Poppy Pearce

ROOTS was an exhibition exploring the theme of ‘forests’ through drawings, paintings, prints and performance by Sasha Ballon, Anuschka Barlas, Alexandra Beteeva, Mira Knoche and Poppy Pearce. In the wake of the first pandemic lockdown, they moved away from Glasgow but maintained a strong collaborative focus based on a shared context of fostering a close connection to nature and to the different landscapes encountered by us in Canada, Russia and the UK. Now back in Scotland, this exhibition allowed them to continue the dialogue sustained throughout the pandemic, and turn online conversations and ideas into a real life show.

Down the ages and across cultures, trees and forests have been regarded as symbols of connection. Scientific research shows their celebrated connectivity is more than a metaphor, with trees able to feed, inform and rejuvenate each other. While such reciprocity doesn’t necessarily ensure harmony, it does temper modern society’s fixation on individualism and competition as the primary engine of evolution and so-called progress. Taking these values as our starting point, our personal experiences and interpretations of forest landscapes, physical and metaphorical, diverge across our practices.