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With Love. From an Invader. (17 March 2020- 16 March 2021)

Four-screen immersive projection with original soundscape

37 minutes 28 seconds

Yan Wang Preston (visual artist) in collaboration with Monty Adkins (composer)

Keywords: environmental photography, ecology, identity, landscape, soundscape, audio-visual, rhododendrons, invasive species, multisensorial research.

‘With Love. From an Invader.’ is a year-long, intensive field study project. It is intened to investigate the hidden politics and potential prejudice associated with the term ‘non-native invasive species’. Multi-sensorial embodiment is the key artistic method in its research and presentation. The project took form within the 182 walks conducted by Yan Wang Preston for one complete year (17 March 2020 to 16 March 2021), during which she photographed one love-heart-shaped rhododendron bush every other day, always at half an hour before sunset. The project is represented as a four-screen immersive projection with an original soundscape composed by her collaborator Monty Adkins. 

To listen to the entire soundscape, click here

Image above: Installation at the John Hope Gateway, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK. (May-August, 2022)

Screen 1: Timelapse film of the 182 still photographs. 

Screen 2: One single rhododendron flower filmed with a macro lens. One shot, unedited footage.

Screen 3: Go-pro footage of Wang Preston crawling inside one rhododendron area. One shot, unedited footage.

Screen 4: Infrared motion-sensitive camera footage of animal activities in the area.