Bound & Infinity presents Stemflow, a solo exhibition by artist Nick Jordan centred on sphagnum moss and its key role in the ecology of peatland habitats. Exploring human-nature relationships and co-dependencies, the exhibition features a body on new interrelated work, including film installations, sculptures, photographs, archival prints and living specimens. The exhibition continues the artist's recent thematic work, looking at processes of social and ecological care, resilience and restoration, especially within the context of marginalised, overlooked or edgeland landscapes.
Named after a term used in hydrology*, Stemflow includes a new short film, Translocations, which highlights the mutual aid and reciprocal exchange between species, documenting the re-introduction and transference of sphagnum moss across a restored peatland on the edge of Manchester. Featuring the voice of botanist, author and activist Robin Wall Kimmerer, and a tactile soundtrack score, the film depicts the human and more-than-human life, energies and actions that are transforming an intensively farmed and damaged terrestrial environment back into a flourishing wetland habitat.
The exhibition also features Accumulations, cast resin spherical sculptures containing suspended specimens of sphagnum moss, lichens and plants that thrive in peatland environments; Cultivations, living peatbog mosses and plants the artist has grown, presented in salvaged laboratory glass vases and terrariums; Observations, photomicrographs, archival prints, photographs and microscope video footage of sphagnum species.
*In hydrology, stemflow is the flow of intercepted water down the trunk or stem of a plant. Stemflow, along with throughfall, is responsible for the transferral of precipitation and nutrients from the canopy to the soil. Stem flow within peatbogs refers to the interruption or holding of water across a wetland, where sphagnum moss plays a crucial role in water storage, filtration, carbon absorption and peat formation.
Stemflow installation views, Bound & Infinity
Translocations | 14.44 mins. | 2025 | HD Video
