Trees, Soils, Seeds / Niya B

Four expert-citizens - a doctor, two artists and an ecologist - share their green skills and knowledge to engage us in imaginative exercises of cultivation and mutual care over three weeks. The series begins with a workshop by Niya B exploring our intimacies with plants. Using sound, visualisation, touch and breath, she will guide us in how the power of seeds can take us beyond human-centred sensualities. 

Niya B is a multi-disciplinary artist, working at the intersections of visual art and performance. She uses video, soundscapes, text, live acts and immersive installations and technologies to explore themes related to ecology, posthumanism, (trans)gender politics, class, and the knowledge that is held in the land and the performing body. As a counteraction to political polarisation, Niya seeks to establish intimacy with her audience, creating a meditative space of vulnerability, affect and interdependence. Niya has shown work in exhibitions, festivals, live art events and academic conferences including Tate Britain and The Yard Theatre (London), CCA (Glasgow), Site Gallery (Sheffield), BOM (Birmingham), ONCA (Brighton), Performance Space (Folkestone), NEoN festival (Dundee); Visioni Del Sud (Salento, Italy); 5th Thessaloniki Biennale; 5th Moscow Biennale; International Print Biennale (Laing Art Gallery, Newcastle). Niya holds an MA in Landscape Architecture (University of Sheffield) and she is currently a PhD candidate at Kingston University London, where she is investigating the intersection of ecology and gender.