The Amensalist in situ at The Sherborne, Dorset. February 2025.

The Amensalist is a site-specific sculptural installation created in response to the exhibition theme, Bind, and the ongoing conservation of Sherborne House in Dorset. Drawing on the artist’s background in architecture, the work is carefully attuned to the scale and proportions of the grand staircase, engaging in a quiet dialogue with its historical structure.

A vine of English Ivy, taken from the photographic work The Seeker, ascends the staircase, winding and twisting upon itself. Reimagined in soft, satin-covered wool, it echoes both the quiet persistence of nature and the tactility of human care. Entirely self-supporting, it respects the fragile heritage of the house, requiring no fixings—only the gentle embrace of its own form, much like ivy binding itself to wood in the natural world.

The installation plays with scale, amplifying the presence of the vine to match the grandeur of the space. Its sinuous form stretches across 11 meters, not merely decorating but actively inhabiting the architecture, heightening the tension between the built environment and organic growth.

Beneath the surface, The Amensalist reflects on nature’s quiet reclamation of all that is built. Without preservation, even the most enduring structures would succumb to time’s slow, creeping embrace. The term amensalism describes an ecological relationship in which one organism perishes while the other remains unaffected—a passive yet absolute act of dominance.

Within this framework, the installation suggests an unsettling truth: power does not always require aggression. Sometimes, it is the seemingly harmless that consumes and erases. Beware the innocuous— it may be an Amensalist.