Jon Halls London, United Kingdom

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My work questions how we value the natural world in the 21st century through drawing, installation, workshops and talks to create spaces where nature can be valued and discussed.

I am an artist, illustrator and activist. My work explores the intersection between environmentalism, conservation and social justice by questioning what we value and challenging how contemporary perceptions destroys wildlife while not benefiting people. Growing up in Hayes, Bromley, on the border of London’s Green Belt, my childhood was spent in the edgelands, neither rural nor urban. This in-between space has given me an appreciation of what nature and wilderness offers through its absence in the city, while also being aware of the pace, need and expanse of concrete.

The juxtaposition between the green and the grey has shaped my practice. My work currently reflects on how the boundaries that define the edge of the city can inform one another to not only advocate for nature, but also to challenge how perceptions of value destroy the wild while not benefiting the people. Through drawing, installation, workshops, talks and writing I establish an ethnographic approach to my practice. By utilising these various tools in order to understand the subject in as much depth as possible I can assume an informed position in my response that creates conversation through nuance.

In this manner I toe the line between the academic and the intimate to create work that allows people to follow me into the natural world through conversations rather than didacticism.