After a 300-year tradition of cultivating pristine lawns, King’s College at the University of Cambridge instituted a breakthrough change in their grounds maintenance. The result of this rewilding project was a remarkable resurgence of the landscape’s wildlife.
Encapsulating this spirit of revival, Swartz approached her 2025 installation A Study of Nature Rewilded at King’s College with three series of work: Evolution of Nature, Nature’s Bouquet, and Boundless. Created with dynamic brushstrokes and preserved plant material including seeds, fruits, and herbs, these paintings come together to form their own abstract ecosystem reflective of the outside landscape. Swartz’s work is a reminder that not all is lost, and nature can be renewed.
“King’s College has a long history of supporting sustainability, with green tech research, the placement of solar panels on the chapel roof, “wilding” biodiversity lawn in front of the chapel, and much more. The award-winning work of the artist Susan Swartz echoes this. Her art highlights both the beauty and fragility of the natural world around us - and the need to appreciate the environment and protect it, as it comes under growing threat from climate change. In particular, Swartz uses a mixture of paint and repurposed natural materials to spark reflections on the nature of life, decay, regeneration, with images of chaotic natural glory akin to a “wilding” lawn. Her work is thus both an inspiration and a challenge to look at our environment with fresh eyes, as we fight to preserve it, inside and outside King’s.”- Gillian Tett, Provost, King’s College