an exhibition from Emily Stapleton-Jefferis and Jamie Lee
Private View: Thursday 21st August 2025 17:00 - 19:00
Opening Hours: Friday 22nd - Sunday 24th August 2025 12:00 - 18:00
Location: Nunhead Cemetery Chapel
BOOKING IS NOT ESSENTIAL
This exhibition is part of the Summer series from the FLP x Friends of Nunhead Cemetery Exhibition Program 2025.
Pioneer species, lichens are among the first to colonise bare rock. Through chemical weathering they draw minerals from the inert into the cycles of the living. Emily’s artworks sculpted from foraged London clay, itself the softened residue of weathered rock, show how lichen exist at a macro scale, sharing the humanity in their body and revealing our lichen-like nature. An anthropomorphic bridge between us and them: drawing visual parallels between their bodies and our own.
Taking inspiration from the histories, ecology and lichen of Nunhead Cemetery, the work seeks to transport the viewer into an emergent landscape. London clay bubbles and squelches, cracks and dries, is fired and transformed. Sound bounces, rumbles, blares, dividing the chaotic outside of the cemetery and the inner sanctuary as a multiplicitous, serene body.
Echoing the physiology of lichen, the sculpture and sound act in symbiosis, “entirely more than the sum of their parts” [2]. Lichens embody a queer ecology. Being part algae and part fungi, they defy traditional scientific categorisation; having shifted from individual, to dyad, to ecosystem. Fungi’s gender frustrates Linnaean taxonomy and breaks our linear picture of the tree of life. They are our ecological blindspot and yet demonstrate the manner in which humanity must embrace its role as a keystone species if we are to survive.
[1] Harraway Donna, ‘Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chthulucene: Staying with the Trouble’, transcript 5 September 2014, accessed 10 November 2020, http://opentranscripts.org/transcript/anthropocene-capitalocene-chthulucene/. In turn, Haraway took the phrase from a December 2012 article by biologist Scott F. Gilbert, historian of biology Jan Sapp, and historian and philosopher of science Alfred I. Tauber, entitled: ‘A symbiotic view of life: We have never been individuals’, a point brought home in its last sentence, ‘we are all lichens’. Quarterly Review of Biology 87:4 (2012): p. 341.
[2] Sheldrake, Merlin. (2020) Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures. London: Vintage Publishing (The Bodley Head Ltd).
Poster credit to Jed Fielder
Supplementary Events
LICHEN ID WALK WITH LICHENOLOGIST RICHARD TAPPER
Thursday 21st August, 17:30 - 18:30
Booking not essential.
WILD CLAY WORKSHOP
Sunday 24th August, 14:00 - 17:00
Join artist Emily Stapleton-Jefferis to learn how to process wild clay, and create an artwork inspired by the ecology of Nunhead cemetery. Artworks created will either be left as offerings in the space or can be fired for participants and collected from Emily’s studio.
Accessibility Notes
There are 3 small stone steps into the chapel and a ramp can be provided. The chapel is at the end of a gravel path and the stone floors can become slippery, especially in wet weather. This is an outdoor exhibition as there is no roof on the chapel, so please remember to bring weather appropriate apparel.
The nearest train station is Nunhead which does not have step free access. Buses 484, 78, P12 and 343 stop near the cemetery entrance.
About the Artist
Emily Stapleton-Jefferis (she/her) is a sculptor working primarily with ceramics, drawing, and socially engaged practices. She graduated with an MA in Ceramics and Glass from the Royal College of Art in 2018, where she received The Griffin Scholarship and the Eduardo Paolozzi Travel Award.
Emily’s work evolves through a feedback loop between drawing and making—drawings inform sculptures, and sculptures inform new drawings. This cyclical process mirrors the biological subjects she explores. Clay, for its tactility and transformative processes, is central to her practice. Inspired by the botanical, geological, and human body, she zooms in on overlooked details—offering a strange yet familiar lens on the natural world. Her work plays with scale, shifting between the microscopic and macroscopic to reframe our anthropocentric gaze and foster ecological kinship.
Emily has undertaken residencies at St George’s Hospital, Camden Arts Centre, Hogchester Arts, and The Leonora Carrington Museum in Mexico. She has exhibited widely, including at the British Ceramics Biennale, MK Gallery, and Kew Gardens. Her work is held in private and museum collections.
Alongside her studio practice, Emily leads workshops in galleries, community spaces, and education, championing art’s accessibility. She is a founding member of Cultivate Artists Studio in East London.
www.emilystapletonjefferis.co.uk
@emilysjefferis_artist
Jamie Lee (he/him) - sound collaborator
Jamie's practice is site specific and process driven, often working with field recording, found text and montage practices. His work investigates the materiality of historical sites and makes use of multiple audio and visual recording mediums to sense and track movement.
Recent projects explore the effects of unseen forces on bodies and objects, culminating in large and interactive installations often featuring soundscapes and moving images. Recent selected projects include Circuits from Soft Frequencies (2023), completed at Open School East and currently on display in Milton Keynes Gallery; Sensory Fields (2024), an exhibition and public programme presented at Fringe Arts Bath and A Forest of Things (2023-24), a collective using microprocessors to create interactive installations that examine ecological and man-made systems. Jamie was recently awarded WEVAA funding to support a workshop residency at Aq_Tushetii in Georgia, titled Crossing into the Electric Magnetic.
https://jamieleeartist.com/
@jamie_leeartist