w i l d i n g s
Pannett Art Gallery
Solo Exhibition, Curatorial & Research Project
Performances & Music Release 2026
A collaborative project and exhibition between Ruby Tingle & Pannett Art Gallery.
Ruby Tingle has drawn upon her own personal links with the Soper sisters as an artist and amateur naturalist, who spends most of her time reclusively in her local wetlands and home studio,
caring for wildlife and her pet amphibians and reptiles.
She has conducted a year-long research project in the Pannett's archives and at sites including
RSPB Bempton Cliffs, YWT Fen Bog, May Beck and Welwyn Hertfordshire- the Sopers' hometown-
to find links between the collection and natural environments that surround it today.
New works by Tingle explore the wildlife and myths of these places,
inspired by the dual scientific and supernatural figures in Soper works.
The family home named 'Wildings' has been reimagined in this exhibition to form a new series of characters -
magical caretakers of nature, collaged across fantasy swamp and moorland landscapes.
Tingle's multimedia works and specially curated displays combine with commissions by selected collaborators and works by the Soper family.
Her new EP Wildings presents 4 new songs inspired by the collection available via No Such Thing Records.
Credits
Ruby Tingle- Collages, Installation, Film, Curated Displays, Music, Costumes
Sylvia Cook - Botanical paintings from the Danesbury Fernery
Steven Calver - Olfactory Works - Wildings Garden, Badger Moon & The Lily Pond
KINRAR - Research Assistant, Videographer, Film, Sound Installation, Performer
Lizzi Rose - Bioplastic Installation Elements
George Soper - Paintings
Eileen Soper - Paintings, drawings, colour plates and diary entries
Eva Soper - Porcelain bird sculptures
Simon Woolham - Performer - The Frog
This Research Project and Exhibition was made possible by support from Art Fund
With thanks to
Helen Berry & Effie Burns
Colin Adlam & Sylvia Cook, The Danesbury Fernery Welwyn
Tewin Orchard, Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust
Wendy English, Margaret Marsland, Wendy Holliday & The Whitby Naturalists
Joe Redfern & The Whitby Lobster Hatchery
Laurence & Elaine, Whitby Krampus Run
Alan Raw
Amanda Tingle
Glenn Ackroyd
RSPB Bempton Cliffs, WWT Martin Mere, Yorkshire Wildlife Trust
Joy Baker
In memory of the late Cyril John Baker With thanks to the Trustees of the Soper Collection.
Click here for more images and information on the Soper collection
Works BY Ruby Tingle
Please enquire at Pannett art gallery to purchase
Works by Steven Calver
Interactive olfactory works | Lift, and inhale from cloche
Works BY Sylvia Cook
Please enquire at Pannett art gallery to purchase
Works by Lizzi Rose
Sculptural interventions in bioplastic, wax & 3d print
Artist's statement on the project
"The research I've undertaken on the Soper collection has led me to a huge variety of special habitats and wildlife experiences across the country- I was able to get close to a host of animals who physically surround the Soper works and feature in them, all of which are of critical importance in our current climate. Persecuted Badgers and Gannets, the local moors which are recovering from wild fires, vital conservation work by Whitby Naturalists & Whitby Lobster hatchery, along with the amphibian population which is in global crisis, point to the Soper collection being more relevant today than ever, in its depictions and celebration of the natural world.
The colour plates and anthropomorphic works by Eileen Soper particularly inspired me, as an artist who is fascinated by the liminal spaces between what is documented as scientific fact and fiction.
Fairies and magical creatures feature along side familiar animals and habitats in these educational works, using imagination and enchantment to teach us about the environment. I believe story telling can connect people of all ages and backgrounds to nature, and have used this as a tool in new collages to create my own characters and unnatural history.
My hope is that this project is the beginning of many more artists working with this collection, and to build a legacy which makes it a highlight of Whitby and Hertfordshire culture."
Ruby Tingle
New Wildings- a nature diary home & away
by Ruby Tingle & Kinrar
(Excerpt)
Created as part of Tingle's research project with Pannett art gallery and artfund,
this video diary documents the artists' life at home in her local wetlands,
and journeys across the country to various sites connected with the Soper collection through the four seasons.
Throughout the film we explore north Yorkshire, including Bempton Cliffs, fen bog, may beck & goathland,
with the support of whitby naturalists.
Tingle also discovers the midwife toad population in pannett park
and visits the soper's home town of welwyn in hertfordshire.
here she visits Danesbury fernery and sees some of George Soper's surviving replanted ferns,
and a special trip to Tewin Orchard watching badgers from their mammal hide.
The badgers in this film are actual descendants of the animals Eileen soper watched and documented, when she helped reintroduce the site with a boar and sow after badgers abandoned the site in the 1970s.
Wildings -EP
Tingle has created 4 new pieces of music in response to the Soper collection, lifting lyrical inspiration from diaries, books and artwork titles.
Wildings traces a joruney across a semi fictional landscape, from mystic night encounters with badgers and toads, across the north Yorkshire moors as a shepherdess of real and imagined creatures,
to the romance of gannets roosting at Bempton Cliffs.
Her first fully self produced EP, Wildings blends electronica, alt pop, poetry, experimental sound design and field recording, rooted in her unique dreamy and folkloric motifs.
'Wildings' is the name of the house, garden and land where George, Eileen and Eva Soper lived.
It has been reimagined as a title in this project -
as a name for Tingle's supernatural characters who appear in the exhibition, and as a concept to inspire this music.
PURCHASE WILDINGS ON CD IN THE GALLERY SHOP
Events Programme
October 17th
Exhibition Opening and music performance at Pannett art Gallery
October 24th
Performance & Film Q&A at MusicPort with Whitby Lobster Hatchery
November 21st
Whitby Literature Festival- share a story with the Frog
December 5th
Music Performance at whitby Krampus Run- The Krampus Ball
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Ruby Tingle is an award winning multimedia artist, Musician and performer
represented by No Such Thing Records & PAPER Gallery.
Tingle's Expanded Collage practice reconstructs the readymade and familiar into the fantastical, presenting unnatural histories, dreamworlds and new myths which blur the lines between science and cryptozoology. A fascination with the romance and creatures of wetlands habitat, herpetology, the botanical and the curious or hidden in nature roots her material and conceptual investigation. Tingle's practice spans performance, installation, sound, music, work on paper, video, writing, sculpture, costume and interventions with museum collections. She works collaboratively with artists, curators and wildlife charities to invite larger environmental discussion and support nature conservation.
Tingle creates genre splicing ‘music from the swamp’. Her visual lagoon fantasy world transforms into audio through a combination of electronica, natural sound, nu jazz, dance, experimental and avant- garde pop, culminating in luscious and enchanting serenades of beasts, slime and metamorphosis. She composes and produces hyper romantic and dreamy love songs rooted in nature, to tell stories of giant bird men, celestial pools, glasshouse flirtation and steamy tropical paradises full of ancient lizards and monster bridegrooms.
Recent exhibitions and performances include Wildings Curatorial Project & Solo exhibition at Pannett Art Gallery, Afterlife Solo exhibition and performances at the Whitaker, Lagoons Solo exhibition at Warrington Museum & Art Gallery, Flora Victorious Performances with Venture Arts at Venice Biennale and Fountainia music award and commission with Manchester Jazz Festival. She has also shown at Saatchi Gallery, Chethams Library, HOME, Come Ca, Manchester Museum, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester Contemporary,The Harris, Sluice, Art Basel, 48 Hours Neukölln and Axel Obiger; with music performances at Bridgwater Hall, Night Embassy Berlin, New Colossus New York, Strange Days festival of Forteana, Glasshouse ICM, Bluedot & Glastonbury. Tingle has gained support from Arts Council England, Artfund, No Such Thing Records, PAPER Gallery, John Kennedy Radio X, Darla Records & Modern Sky.
