Daddy long legs
Kurt Jackson (2021)
Mixed media on monoprint, 29cm x 33cm
Professor Yadvinder Malhi CBE FRS: Research
Yavinder Malhi CBE FRS is Professor of Ecosystem Science at the Environmental Change Institute, School of Geography and the Environment.
Professor Malhi explores the functioning of the biosphere and its interactions with global change, including climate change.
He has a particular fascination with, and love for, tropical forests -- though he has recently been spotted in ecosystems ranging from the savannas, the Arctic, tropical coral reefs and Oxfordshire's woodlands and floodplain meadows.
Professor Yadvinder Malhi CBE FRS: Response
"I am an ecosystem scientist, and what fascinates me is the web of interactions between individual organisms and species. This artwork resonates with me because it captures how everything interacts with everything to build the whole. The title refers to the fungal webs that connect trees belowground, but I see this as pointing to the many ways trees and other organisms interact, whether through chemical signals, food webs, or shaping each other's physical environment. So much of this is still poorly understood.
The way the web in the artwork dissolves into a blur captures for me the sense of so much still being unknown; of us just being able to see the vaguest sense of pattern in a complex, awe-inspiring and enduring mystery. Something I think true for the whole natural world."
