Amy Shelton: Biophilia – The Exeter Florilegium

Amy Shelton’s Biophilia: The Exeter Florilegium is RAMM’s Covid-19 commission.

Building on her environmental practice, Shelton’s artwork includes a herbarium of pressed plant specimens compiled on her daily lockdown walks in Exeter during Spring and Summer 2020. It also includes flower contributions from staff and patients from the Royal Devon & Exeter hospital, and specimens from the gardens of people self-isolating.

A moving snapshot of people’s personal experiences of the first lockdown in Exeter, Shelton’s commission documents an unprecedented time when many people looked to nature and green space for wellbeing and reflection. As the artist says, the work also ‘acts as a bouquet of gratitude and dedication to NHS staff, to family and loved ones, and to people lost during the pandemic’.

Shelton’s proposal was selected by open competition from a range of submissions from artists living or working in Exeter. Her commission is funded by Arts Council England.