Following Fallowing: Exhibition by SustainLab RCA 2025/26

In a contemporary era defined by productivity, speed, and measurable outcomes, stopping is often perceived as a sign of stagnation. Yet the agricultural practice of fallowing, the intentional resting of land to restore its vitality, maintain ecological balance, and prepare for future cultivation, offers another perspective.

Following Fallowing draws on this principle to reconsider the relationship between rest, creativity, and sustainability. Rather than framing rest as withdrawal or inactivity, the exhibition positions it as a fundamental condition for making, a generative interval through which ideas mature, systems recalibrate, and practices renew themselves. In doing so, it asks: What might creative resilience look like if we valued cycles of pause as much as cycles of production?

Bringing together artists, designers, and creative practitioners from the Royal College of Art, the exhibition engages fallowing across diverse media, including painting, photography, sculpture, interactive installation, and video. Through material choices, temporal processes, and spatial interventions, the participants explore cycles of depletion and regeneration, labour and latency, presence and withdrawal. Rest is approached not as a temporary interruption but as a methodology, one embedded within ecological, intellectual, and artistic systems.

Exhibiting Artists and Designers

Bofei Wan, Conni McKenzie, Elena Saraceni Anzola, Elina Yumasheva, Ewan Atkinson, Georgia Dalzell, Hanzi He, Harriet Rutter, Isabelle Zetterström, Jin Tian, John Huw Davies, Jozef Michalski, Jung Min Yoon, Tianyi Li, Luchen Xi, Manwai Lei, Maria Rahal, Megan Peng, Michelle Owen, Nefeli Vitoraki, Noure Miao, Olivia Webb, Pagan McKenzie, Pil Gyu Jang, Qianwen Xing, Rebecca Thomas-Mccann, Rui Lu, Sahar Khaleghi, Sahithya Mahadevan, Salma Kabil, Sophie De Carvalho, Talisa Rubina, Verona Shi, Wenjie Feng, Xin Jin, and Yingqi Wang, Zhenghao Chen (Sparro), and Mud Collective (Antara Priti Vinay, Beatriz Ferreira Camargo Rocha, Frances O’Leary, Megan Wheatley and Moyo Adebayo).

Curatorial Team

Ie Jin Choi, Lily Yiyan Hou, Lotem Rozen, Mehak Maharia, Neelanchal Gupta, Tanaya Dnyaneshwar Chitale, Vittoria Giusti.

Design Team

Abhay Shenoy, Neelanchal Gupta, Pankhuri Soni, Tarangini.

Opening Hours

Preview & Opening: Saturday 28 March, 12–7.30 pm
Closing Event & Ecollegey Festival: 9 April, 2–9.30 pm
General Public: 28 March (12–7.30 pm), 8, 9 April (2–9.30 pm)
RCA Staff & Students Only: 30, 31 March, 1 April
Closed during college closure: 2–7 April 2026

Workshops & Artist Talks

6pm, 28 March – Live sound performance by Zhenghao Chen (Sparro).

11am, 8 April – Material Memory workshop with Ewan Atkinson to learn basic spinning or weaving techniques.

3pm, 8 April – Material workshop with a group of five designers from MA Textile, Fashion, Service Design, and Design Product.

4pm, 8 April – Knitting and weaving performance and workshop with Manwai Lei (Vivian Lei).

6.30pm, 8 April – Musical Performance: A live electro-acoustic Sound Bath with John Huw Davies.

11am, 9 April – Sustainably sourcing and making pigments from recycled and found materials with Jozef Michalski.

1pm, 9 April – Painting with natural materials workshop with Elina Yumasheva.

2pm, 9 April – Walking meditation “Fallowing Walk” with Conni McKenzie.

All workshops and performances will take place at the Hangar Gallery. No sign-up required – spaces are available on a first-come, first-served basis.