Benjamin Wigley

Screening tonight as part of the very cool @offbeatfilm Festival in the TIED TO THE LAND section. The second edition of The OffBeat Folk Film Festival kicks off at Cold Harbour Blue for an evening of films about people's connection to the natural landscape. Doors are at 6:45pm and the films start at 7:30pm Eeley Betty (A013) by Marie-Chantal Hamrock (8 mins) WHEN THE CROWS WALK HOME by Rosa Prosser (13 mins) Yan.Tan.Tethera by Lilibet Williams (35 mins) BREAK Hart of the Wood by Ben Wigley (62 mins) (@nathaniel__mann , @stephenjoncooper , @wemakeourway , @musicalpicapica , @lisavoice , @maarjanuut , @fungipat , Buster Nolan, Dragon Hill Wood Community, @nationaltrust @biforuob @cj_mirra , @markpyper and many more collaborators.... /events/offbeatfolkfilm/2099419 Mon 4 May 2026 7:00 PM - 10:30 PM Coldharbour Blue, SE24 0HN

Thrilled to have the Hart of the Wood film selected for @offbeatfilm Festival. Screening on the 4th May kicking off the Festival at Cold Harbour Blue for an evening of films about people's connection the natural landscape. Doors are at 6:45pm and the films start at 7:30pm - The Hart of the Wood Collective, is a group of multidisciplinary artists and collaborators, led by Benjamin Wigley with Nathaniel Mann, Stephen Jon Cooper, Martin Sommerville & Mary Keith, with various shifting specialisms in the visual, sonic & performative arts. The HOTW Collective also create alongside a range of other artists, scientists, thinkers and makers. lots of people to mention - thanks

My film SPIKA: Sowing Teeth has been selected for this month’s programme PIGMENTO 💫 This February issue is dedicated to colour as material in motion, bringing together films that follow pigment as it migrates across rock, textile, skin, celluloid, and data—through dyes and industrial chemicals, biological pigments, light-sensitive reactions, and accidental residues. wonderful to be included among works that trace how colour is produced, transformed, preserved, and erased—revealing its scientific, material, and poetic lives. Thank you to the @labocine #labocinepigmento #sciencenewwaveteam for featuring SPIKA: Sowing Teeth ✨

I’ve started the new year by finally printing some of the chine colle, Carboniferous fossil, X-ray etchings. I made the X-rays from the Carboniferous fossils last spring, then the cyanotypes on the Japanese paper in the summer - using Carboniferous plants (mainly marestail) - then I exposed the plates in autumn at @leicesterprintworkshop and then finally printed some today. This is a slow process for me but something I’ve been developing since collaborating with @kristina_chan_ for the #hartofthewood ‘ways of the plant’ project at @lapworthmuseum

Thanks so much @ohvirago for such a lovely write up in @leftlionmagazine . Left Lion have supported som many of my projects in the past from Paa Joe & The Lion, to Of Walking on Thin Ice (CaminotoCop26). Thank you for continued support I went the other day to do some maintenance and the light and the landscape was absolutley stunning… They are very well bedded in and we have had around 30K people have used them and each averaging just under a minute per watch. Which is a tremendous improvement (well done Matt Little (Re-innovation) ) on how long people watch the films now we have moved to the screen based film presentations (rather than 16mm projection)- It’s still the original film that was in the landscape for two years with over 100K uses- but I re-scanned it with all its grime and otherworldly magic ingrained into the surface… which adds to the already textured surface.  @nathaniel__mann haunting soundscapes emerge in an atmospheric and beautiful way Thanks to curator @spinksabi NCC @newstead_abbey for inviting me to show the Kinetoscope film sculptures in their parkland as part of the #FOREST season. Hart of the Wood: Newstead Abbey is a commission by artist Benjamin Wigley and Hart of the Wood Collective. Original, dream-like films and music draw on the mythology and folklore of forests. Take an interactive journey into the forest by finding the three Kinetoscope film sculptures installed along a walking route through Newstead Abbey gardens. Thanks to the Newstead Abbey team, Nottingham City Council, and the many #HartoftheWood project collaborators, including… @stephenjoncooper , @nathaniel__mann  , @wemakeourway , @musicalpicapica , Ian Jones, @biforuob  , @singsongjanie , @lisavoice  – and beautiful graphic artwork by David @fasterthanagallopinghorse Scanning by @erewhon ).

Had a go at changing the belts on this @steenbeckbv 16mm editing table… thanks for the excellent advice from David from Genevastopfilm

Thank you @jihlava_idff for inviting me and our short experimental film SPIKA: Sowing Teeth for its world premiere. It was a brilliant screening with an engaged audience in a very strong programme called ‘Fascinations’ named after a film by the Canadian veteran filmmaker Mike Hoolboom - who I was fortunate to meet in Canada @hoffman.philip film farm back in 2017. There’s another screening this week. Thanks for collaborators @spika.mi_hy @rachelarmstrong665 , Rolf Hughes @stephenjoncooper @bottletopdesign @nathaniel__mann - scans by @erewhon @kodak_shootfilm and @digital_orchard filmed @TriennaleDiMilano . And travel supported by @britishcouncil Synopsis SPIKA:Sowing Teeth Beneath the polished floors of the Triennale di Milano, the ground begins to stir—an awakening of memory and matter. Plant, prion, soil, microbe… a fissure appears, first noticed by the cleaners. What starts as a subtle disturbance evolves into SPIKA, a strange ecological disruption that hungers for further disruption. This short film imagines a world overtaken by symbiotic life—plants and proliferating microbes that spread across the city, energised by SPIKA. The sculpture reimagines urban sustainability through Microbial Hydroponics (Mi-Hy), integrating hydroponics with microbial fuel cells to promote symbiotic relationships between plants and microbes. SPIKA becomes a prosthetic rhizosphere, transforming household waste into natural fertilisers. It challenges architecture’s legacy of ecological disruption and proposes an alternative: a closed-loop, living architectural core that turns buildings into metabolic hubs for the city. The film was created using 16mm celluloid, various film stocks, and plant-based hand development rituals to evoke the organic essence of SPIKA. It responds to the sculptural installation exhibited at the 2025 Triennale di Milano, and draws on a fictional conceit developed by the Experimental Architecture Group.

I’m very excited to be showing my film SPIKA :Sowing Teeth at the 29th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, the largest festival of creative documentary in Central and Eastern Europe. The film is a collaboration with @Rachelarmstrong and focuses on the new work on show at the International exhibtion at the @TriennaleDiMilano this year. The film has been programmed in the Fascinations category: “Fascinations is a prestigious competition section for best world experimental documentary films. Unexpected representations of the lived world through exploratory work with film language in an atlas of contemporary experimental cinema from every continent.” See link in Bio Thanks to the British Council have been kind enough to support a trip to the festival Synopsis SPIKA:Sowing Teeth Beneath the polished floors of the Triennale di Milano, the ground begins to stir—an awakening of memory and matter. Plant, prion, soil, microbe… a fissure appears, first noticed by the cleaners. What starts as a subtle disturbance evolves into SPIKA, a strange ecological disruption that hungers for further disruption. This short film imagines a world overtaken by symbiotic life—plants and proliferating microbes that spread across the city, energised by SPIKA. The sculpture reimagines urban sustainability through Microbial Hydroponics (Mi-Hy), integrating hydroponics with microbial fuel cells to promote symbiotic relationships between plants and microbes. SPIKA becomes a prosthetic rhizosphere, transforming household waste into natural fertilisers. It challenges architecture’s legacy of ecological disruption and proposes an alternative: a closed-loop, living architectural core that turns buildings into metabolic hubs for the city. The film was created using 16mm celluloid, various film stocks, and plant-based hand development rituals to evoke the organic essence of SPIKA. It responds to the sculptural installation exhibited at the 2025 Triennale di Milano, and draws on a fictional conceit developed by the Experimental Architecture Group. Story Development Rolf Hughes - and the Regenerative Architecture Arts and Design research group (RAAD).

A fantastic invitation to Hannover Film and Media forum by my old friend @whoareyouthistime - I spoke about our ideas around letting the act of making leading your way and not to fear constraints, followed by a workshop ‘ film experience’ where we shot some film on the Bolex, created some sound recordings with interesting microphones, I talked a bit about how I learned plant based film development at @hoffman.philip film farm in Canada back in 2017 as part of an artist residency there and we made some Phytograms which @phytography_ showed me how to do in 2018 in my garden. Responding to the trees … lead by the sun at the beautiful park outside the town Hall in Hannover - we created something good… thanks for a great time @filmundmedienbuero for the invitation… the poster was made by Ai in an interesting workshop led by Radek this morning… thanks Johannes Bunger for the great pics

Thanks to curator @spinksabi and NCC @newstead_abbey for inviting me to show the Kinetoscope film sculptures in their parkland as part of the #FOREST season. Matt Little (Re-innovation) and I managed to refurbish the Kinetoscopes after about 5 years in the landscape (2 years at @ntshugborough and then around 3 years @dudmastonnt ). We updated the sculptures with very low-power digital technology, re-scanning the film that had spent years in the landscape – and played tens of thousands of times through the mechanical projector units (thanks @erewhon ). Here are some images from the installation last week. Thanks for the support @campbell_gittens_sculptor They are in the landscape now for the rest of 2025. Hart of the Wood: Newstead Abbey is a commission by artist Benjamin Wigley and Hart of the Wood Collective. Original, dream-like films and music draw on the mythology and folklore of forests. Take an interactive journey into the forest by finding the three Kinetoscope film sculptures installed along a walking route through Newstead Abbey gardens. Thanks to the Newstead Abbey team, Nottingham City Council, and the many #HartoftheWood project collaborators, including… @stephenjoncooper , @nathaniel__mann , @wemakeourway , @musicalpicapica , Ian Jones, @biforuob , @singsongjanie , @lisavoice – and beautiful graphic artwork by David @fasterthanagallopinghorse

Working today in the lab experimenting for the @spika.mi_hy film collaboration at @triennalemilano with elderflower plant based development, contact print, striping with torch and plant print photogram techniques… looking back at old notes from @_liftfilm and @hoffman.philip film farm residency from 2017… more to come

Thanks to my mum for dropping off my print to the @royalacademyarts while I was filming in Milan at the Triennale Museum. This Trichromatic Carboniferous Fossil Print is shortlisted this year for the Summer Show. Thanks to @plaintiff.press @danieltwheeler and @lapworthmuseum @aceagrams DYCP for the support with this part of my practice. Great to get this far...