Feature

Rachel Hudson & The Selborne Landscape Partnership present From the Margins

The exhibition, From The Margins, is created in response to the work of The Selborne Landscape Partnership, restoring the countryside that was home to Gilbert White and Jane Austen. Initially working in conservation communication, Rachel Hudson is known for her lively, yet authentic approaches to natural history illustration and social engagement. She has earned recognition in the UK and US for her collaborations with leading organisations to champion wildlife at risk, captivate audiences and prompt positive change. Taking inspiration from her interest in Medieval stained glass and illuminated manuscripts, Rachel invites you into the microworlds of the field margins. While drawing on the legacy of Medieval art, this exhibition introduces elements from our own time and place.

Part I

The Selborne Bestiary is a visual metaphor for declining species in isolated habitat fragments and the importance of a joinedup ‘mosaic approach’ in conservation that aims to create an interconnected, functioning landscape for wildlife, alongside agriculture.

It is informed by compartment portraits of medieval bestiaries that showcase representative beasts and stress the beauty and diversity of the natural world. Following decades of intensive farming, there is only one species per square, nature at the minimum. Our increasing consumer demands come at the expense of the health of the natural environment. What happens in between the squares and how these species can survive and thrive in the contemporary farmed landscape, is explored in Margins.

Part II

Margins shows you what life can look like when field margins are planted, managed and reconnected by farmers and volunteers. Witness the energy and struggles of the changing seasons, where predator and prey find food and shelter, while farmers are busy with their labours of the months, to produce our food. At two metres high, these Margins play with the central convention of Medieval marginalia (tiny doodles at the edges of books). Centrestage and large-scale, here they arm the beauty and purpose of seemingly untidy and unimportant strips of land.

The Selborne Landscape Partnership

Established in 2014 with the idea that if farmers collaborated at the landscape scale to conserve nature the whole would be more than the sum of the parts – and where better to set about doing this than in a parish which has had its nature immortalised by Gilbert White. It quickly transpired that this collaboration was about much more than farmers as a range of local wildlife organisations got on board and a small army of amateur naturalists enthusiastically gave up their time for surveys to guide action on the ground.

Now we are delighted to be part of this new artistic collaboration with Rachel Hudson. Her beautifully evocative illustrations of our field margin species demonstrate how conservation needs art as well as heart to grow public support, giving us an opportunity to share the work we do in a compelling way. Following in the footsteps of the many talented illustrators of numerous editions of The Natural History of Selborne Rachel wonderfully captures and celebrates the beauty and diversity of Selborne’s farmed landscape and its wild inhabitants. William Selborne, Lead Farmer, Selborne Landscape Partnership

About Rachel Hudson

Rachel Hudson is an illustrator based in Four Marks, Hampshire. She is known for her lively and authentic natural history illustrations for information, greetings cards, publishing, packaging and editorial. Clients include BBC Wildlife Magazine, Bloomsbury Publishing, Butterfly Conservation, the National Trust and The Wildlife Trusts. Her first children’s non-fiction book, 100 Endangered Species, was published in 2021. http://rachelhudsonillustration.com/

The exibition will run from 21st June – 14th August 2022 at Gilbert White’s House Museum. Ticket prices vary, for details please visit www.gilbertwhiteshouse.org.uk or tel. 01420 511275