Looming

Installation, free motion embroideries; wood, cotton tread, 240 x 100 cm, 2026

In our world of 400,000 named plant species, two in five face extinction, threatening ecosystems and life on Earth. Despite providing the habitats we rely on and the air we breathe, plants are often overlooked — a phenomenon known as plant blindness. Our brains struggle to distinguish individual plant species, a symptom of growing urbanisation and disconnection from nature.

This global crisis is mirrored closer to home: in Scotland, of the 1600 known flowering plant species, 260 are considered priorities for biodiversity conservation in East Lothian.

Looming is an installation of free motion embroideries depicting these 260 threatened plants. Like a delicate, suspended herbarium, this collection highlights the vulnerability of plant life and invites viewers to reconsider the importance of the species we so often fail to see.