artist multiple, 148 x 210 mm
digital print in an edition of 100
printed in the UK on cream heavyweight stock
signed and numbered on the reverse
2022

What would the world be, once bereft
Of wet and of wildness? Let them be left,
O let them be left, wildness and wet;
Long live the weeds and the wilderness yet.

Gerard Manley Hopkins, from ‘Inversnaid’

A century after publication, the closing verse of Hopkins’ poem feels more resonant than ever – bereft of wildness now barely hypothetical, wet a real anxiety in the driest summer on record. Let them be left suggests a combination of not-doing and taking action, two approaches which might in fact be the same. Allowing wild plants or weeds to thrive and banning unnecessary pesticide use are essential if we are to counteract species loss and the alarming decline in pollinators.

LONG LIVE THE WEEDS re-imagines Hopkins’ plea through the handwriting of the political establishment – each character in the text purloined from the papers of a century of UK prime ministers. James Ramsay Macdonald lends an L, Harold Wilson his H, Boris Johnson an E; all parties on the same page. Whether rural, agricultural or urban, weeds’ status and management by those in charge need urgent re-evaluation. Hopkins’ verse sounds a compelling call to act.

I have deliberately made this edition as low cost as I can, in order to disseminate it as widely as possible (weed-like).

10% proceeds to Pesticide Action UK