Sufficient
Ming De Nasty
A3 Project Space, 2017
An exhibition of photographs by Ming De Nasty that plots her personal growing year during 2016, taken as part of a wider project in which she documented the experiences of urban growers in Birmingham.
The images are from a world that Ming loves to inhabit, a place to look at things in close up, where time slows down and we can appreciate small details, textures and life cycles, the natural rhythms that can be lost to us as we get on with our urban lives.
I grew up on a small-holding that has long since given way to urban sprawl. Although since then I have lived in a city, farming has never really left me. In a container or corner of garden I have grown things where I can. An allotment holder I grow most of my own vegetables and keep chickens and bees. Sufficient has enabled me to explore this impulse to grow things.
Initially the main aim of this project was to find other urban growers from my city, individuals with this same impulse to grow their own. The people I photographed have each got their own reasons for doing this but one commonality became apparent while I was creating this body of work was their strong desire for a connection with nature and all the positivity it brings to their lives.
The images I have chosen to exhibit are from my personal growing year. They are from a world which I love to inhabit, a place of my childhood, a place where I have the time to look at things in close up, where time slows down for me and I can appreciate small details, textures and life cycles, the natural rhythms that can be lost to us as we get on with our urban lives.
Ming De Nasty 2017
Ming De Nasty 2017