Photo by Andy Sewell
Over nine days artists, Ackroyd & Harvey, grew a 16 x 4m banner in the Turbine Hall with a text, written by Ben Okri, stencilled into the seedling grass. Equivalent to a photogram, his words were revealed in bright yellow as the letters were removed.
On Friday June 25 2021, a cellist played and eighteen performers congregated to roll and remove the grass banner from the Tate to the Thames.
The installation follows Tate’s declaration of a climate emergency in 2019
Photo by Andy Sewell
Big Oil Is The Poison I Zac Ove and Monique Roffey
Photo by Buildhollywood
Words by author, Monique Roffey and designed as a poster by the artist, Zak Ove & graphic designer, Ebon Heath.
This project was originally imagined as guerrilla fly posters appearing in the urban streets of Glasgow and major cities across the UK in the build up to the COP 26 conference in November 2021. The posters have been used as the backdrop for marches and demonstrations against ‘Big Oil’ in the City of London that recently culminated with a ‘Live Literary Festival’ at Tate Modern during the Extinction Rebellion April 2022 Uprising.
Poster design by Zak Ove and Ebon Heath
Led by Monique Roffey, Writers Rebel hosted a remarkable line up of Global Majority writers and performers, compered by Tongu Fu’s Chris Redmond & Liv Torc. Our speakers included Lemn Sissay, Patience Agbabi, Raymond Antrobus, Courttia Newland, Monique Roffey, Zena Edwards, Inua Ellams, Joe Dunthorne, Alex Lockwood, Nikita Gill, Sarah Winman, Greg Norminton, Maggie Gee & XRUK’s Clare Farrell who read from Jay Griffiths’ book, ‘Why Rebel’. The group set up an impromptu stage on the green outside Tate Modern and performed to a large, receptive audience.
Almost Invisible Angels I Jay Griffiths I Sir Mark Rylance I Anna Phoebe & Sam Lee I Gaby Solly I Invisible Circus
“They do not take the title of angels, being by nature bashful and unassuming, they go by other names - firefly, bee, ant, caddisfly - I wish that everyone who said they believed in angels, would actually believe in insects.” Jay Griffiths
“Insects are - truly - the Angels”
Pollution, monocultures, climate change and insecticides have brought invertebrate populations to an unprecedented low in most countries in the world. In Britain, climate disruption and intensive farming have caused a 60% decline in flying insects in just 20 years, and a global report in the journal Biological Conservation says a quarter of insects could be wiped out within just a decade.
“When I heard about the collapse of insect populations, I cried for three days. I saw in one awful moment a vision of the desolated world, a devastated wasteland." Jay Griffiths, Tears, facts and dreams
To mark the start of the Royal Entomological Society’s Insect Week, our Paint the Land team at Writers Rebel launched a short film based on Jay Griffiths’s dreamtime. The film was narrated by Sir Mark Rylance and accompanied with a haunting, original score by Anna Phoebe and Sam Lee.
The words were realised in the landscape at Tintern Abbey by activist artist, Gaby Solly with Invisible Circus and a host of creative contributors.
Almost invisible Angels was released to coincide with Insect Week, an initiative run by the Royal Entomological Society and partner organisations, like Buglife, the Sustainable Pollinators Services, University of Reading, the Butterfly Conservation, and the Amateur Entomological Society, that encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to learn and care more about insects.
Writers Rebel are indebted to Pascal Bidois, head custodian of Tintern Abbey and the staff at Cadw for supporting the making of this film.
