Shifting Grounds

107 High Street, Sugar House Island, Stratford, E15 2RB

PV: Thursday, 17th April, 6 – 9pm

Open: 18th April – 24th May 2025
Thursday – Sunday, 2 – 6pm 

Unground Collective, a group of nine UK- and internationally-based artists, presents Shifting Grounds, an exhibition exploring the complex intersections of ecology, climate, and human experience. The exhibition runs from 18 April to 24 May 2025 at Hypha Gallery 2, Sugar House Island, in east London. The public programme includes performances and artist workshops, including a durational performance by Elizabeth Salazar Guerra at the preview on 17th April and a drawing performance by Sam Metz on 8th May.

Formed during their time on the MA Art & Ecology at Goldsmiths, University of London, Unground Collective share research-led practices that engage with critical understandings of climate and ecology. Shifting Grounds provides a platform for their diverse perspectives, fostering a dialogue between works and approaches that range from challenging the false boundaries of dualistic thought, through the fight to retain the sacred in the face of colonial extraction, to reimagining rituals to help shape liveable futures. The body – human and non-human – is ever-present, as a site of exploration of our relationships with non-human nature, of drawing out responses to the impacts of modernity on traditional lifeways, and for queering ideas about liveability.

The exhibition features a range of mediums, including film, sculpture, sound, and performance, creating a rich tapestry of artistic explorations. Works by Aliansyah Caniago (Indonesia), Sirun Chen (Chengdu, China), Rhiannon Hunter ( London, UK), Linnea Johnels (Stockholm, Sweden), Jane Lawson (Manchester, UK), Sam Metz (Hull, UK), Sohorab Rabbey (Bangladesh), Tina Ribarits (Berlin, Germany), Elizabeth Salazar (London, UK) and Ella Wong (Hong Kong) converge, delving into the intricate connections between people, landscape, and non-human agents, exploring embodied relations and responses to ecology. The artists grapple with the realities of dispossession, social justice, colonial and capitalist extraction, and the unfolding ecocide, seeking to open up our collective imagination and find healing pathways to socially and environmentally just futures in a time of planetary unrest.

Shifting Ground is sited in a former Sainsbury’s supermarket and is supported by HYPHA STUDIOS 

Aliansyah Caniago (Indonesia)
Sirun Chen (China)
Rhiannon Hunter (UK)

Linnea Johnels (Sweden)
Jane Lawson (UK)
Sam Metz (UK)

Sohorab Rabbey ( Bangladesh)
Tina Ribarits (Germany)
Elizabeth Salazar (Venezuela/UK)