Artist John Newling read from his new book Letters to Nature in 2019 in the yurt in the Barefoot Orchard.

John Newling is a friend of Fruit Routes and a pioneer of public art with a social purpose. In 2018, the artist spent 81 consecutive days writing letters to nature. Part truth and reconciliation, part advocacy of an urgent need, part thoughts for future social ecologies, the letters convey the artist’s long-standing reflection on where planet Earth stands today.

The Dear Nature letters are by turns tragic, desperate, funny, banal and incisive. Collectively they ask us to think in terms of a personal relationship: nature is another living thing and we need to have a (respectful, apologetic, humble) dialogue. Some people might say this maintains ‘the problem’ but Newling asks us to relate to nature as another living thing, not a service or crisis or quantity.
Chris Fremantle