I have been collecting and pressing many leaves and flowers from the Root Zone site. These pressings will then be placed into all the books in the local history section of the local library in Sherwood. Sherwood library has a comprehensive section on local history. I will be placing one or two of the pressing into each book. I have on a few occasions been reading a book and come across a pressed flower or leaf and know that it is a strange and oddly personal encounter.

Root Zone continues my work on the relationship between the natural environment and me; a relationship of meaning and materiality that constructs, cultivates and reviews a poetics of responsibility. It is a relationship that advocates an intelligent ecology based on values that are immanent in the complex workings of nature. Between ethics, ecology and aesthetics I hope for my work to find a new ground in a generative programme of intensive care to influence our responsibilities as gardeners of the public domain.

Natural history is a series of small sculptures that were formed during the Peterborough Soil installation (January – February 2010). Each of nine small spheres was taken out of the compost tumbler over a period of eight weeks, one per week. The series nine spheres reflect the transition from paper text to soil. These are the first of a number of sculptural works that form from moulding the soils I construct.

For many years now I have been making works that investigate material transformations that evolve through processes that weave in and out of transactions with places, people and, more recently, with other living entities. The Lemon Tree continues this thread of expression and research.

The redevelopment of Peterborough’s city centre is not just a cleaning of its environment; it is essentially a renewal of the commitment to the people who occupy its public realm. To this end John Ealing’s project seeks to generate phases of work that evolves through a series of transactions and transformations creating art works inclusive of the city of Peterborough and its natural environment.

Questions found in hymns: exploring the nature of doubt and the struggle for faith

John Newling will be collecting and copying key documents relating to the different history of spaces adjacent to the River Trent and the industrial wastelands of Nottingham which have an emphasis on changing values and shifting architectural or ground use. This collection of documents will be shredded and transformed into soil. Using a laboratory provided by Bio City, the artist will then conduct a number of experiments. In this first phase of the project the laboratory will house a hydroponics system that endeavours to grow Beech trees.

In October 2008 John Newling conducted a survey with the Wellcome Collection to find out 'What people do to make themselves feel better'. (See 'Make a Piano in Spain project'). The findings were then reconfigured to present a poetic insight into 21st century self medication.

John Newling was Artist in Residence at The Collection Studio from January to April 2008. The Noah Laboratory is the final production process and installation of the project initiated during this period and developed throughout 2008. 

Over the course of a month the gallery will form the central distribution hub and recycling point for a newspaper containing the images and writings generated from the residency and will, through the installation, endeavour to transform the some of the papers into soil.

In April 2008 a new company, 'Ark Lab', was set up in order to establish a comprehensive feasibility study of John Newling's proposed project, Ark: Road Vines. Ark Lab will disseminate information on this project at regular intervals throughout the coming months as the project moves from proposal to realisation. 

Retracing the path configured in the 'voicing mysteries' Newling will construct a white linen clad continuous table that will form the physical structure for the Preston Market Mysteries Meal.

This project evolved over an 18 month period and is an extensive essay that attempts to link contemporary arts practice to notions of the sacred. 

In 2005 the Dean of Carlisle Cathedral wrote to me asking if I could install Stamping Uncertainty in the Cathedral Fratry. I travelled to Carlisle to see the space. The Fratry turned out to be an extraordinary space that housed a library of theological texts. The context of the site, the site itself and the relationship to Stamping Uncertainty interested me greatly.

From earliest times Christians have gathered through the night of Easter Eve. The Easter Liturgy is not merely a presentation of Gods work in history. It is meant to be a real experience of new life, a passing from darkness to light which offers hope to all the faithful.

The Preston Market Mystery project has a duration of several years. Initially the project will consist of a series of events that are located within Preston Market Place. These events will accumulate information that will contribute to the final work of the project.

Installation

Installation

Temporary Installation