GEORG WILSON

In Against Nature, Wilson continues to paint the ‘para-pastoral’, a strange, alternate version of the British countryside, where wild creatures inhabit an imaginary world devoid of humans. This new series of paintings focuses specifically on poisonous plant species and the onset of winter, exploring the more fearsome aspects of nature and moments in which the landscape itself may pose a threat to its inhabitants. The works explore the folklore and historic uses of uncultivated poisonous plants, species such as henbane, thorn-apple and nightshade that grow abundantly across the UK, that have long but frequently forgotten histories in both folk and modern medicine. Drawing on historic texts about poisonous flora, Wilson highlights the gradual erosion of plant knowledge in Britain, a process that began as early as the fifteenth century, following the enclosure of common land and the subsequent rise of industrialisation. Throughout the works, Wilson renders these plants as protagonists: at once sinister and alluring. The creatures populating the land still appear, though less prominently than in earlier work, lurking in the shadows. Lower in contrast, the paintings require the viewer to take time to discern intricate details, evoking a sense of the unknown that mirrors humanity’s diminishing knowledge of the natural world. For Wilson, poisonous plants represent a rare element of danger within the English landscape, nature’s own form of defence. Researching lost forms of knowledge, the artist explores how, with the right knowledge and dosage, a poison can become a remedy. These works embrace the strangeness and quiet magic of the darkening landscape at the turn of the seasons.