Coming soon September 2026

Do plants give their permission to be photographed or touched? Can we exhibit plants and their images while respecting their privacy? Does looking equal knowing? Western science has assumed a right to access, know and name plants – should it? To look or not to look, to touch or touch me not? 

In a time where our relationship is perhaps dominated by the visual - roses from Sainsbury’s are bred to look fabulous but smell of nothing and we can’t seem to resist the lure of the perfect cherry blossom selfie – this small, quiet, discrete exhibit invites you to look at plants – or not –  otherwise. 

Drop into a hidden-in-plain-sight greenhouse space and contemplate these questions through an unruly herbarium of experimental photographic objects and tactile invitations. Here, plants refuse to come into focus, offer us partial views and invite us to ‘see’ and engage with our other senses.  

The space accommodates one person at a time and is a photo-free area, open on selected days across September in OmVed Gardens, itself a hidden oasis in Highgate, North London. In addition, join the artist Becky Lyon for An Unruly Herbarium experimental plantography workshop exploring these themes on Saturday 19 September 11:00-13:00.