"THE TABLE AND CHAIRS DID NOT BELONG, AND SOME OF THE POTS OF GERANIUMS. THIS MADE THE GARDEN HOW IT SHOULD BE, A SHADY OUTDOOR ROOM. IT WAS LIKE A ROOM WITH THE WALLS AND OVERHANGING TREES. INDEED, IT HAD ORIGINALLY BEEN THOUGHT OF AS ALMOST INDOORS, THAT IS WHY THERE WERE HIGH FENCES, SOME OF THE PLANTS IN POTS, AND THE BUILD-UP STONES AT THE END LIKE SEATS. THE TABLE AND CHAIRS COMPLETED IT." - SHELAGH WAKELY (FROM THE BOOK IT IS SO GREEN OUTSIDE IT IS DIFFICULT TO LEAVE THE WINDOW)

This virtual exhibition showcases Shelagh WAKELY’s acute exploration of the natural world, her obsession with organic materials and fauna, as well as her interest in metamorphosis and transformation. Wakely spent much of her youth in Kenya, surrounded by ecologists and natural scientists, and developed a particular fascination with natural forms.  Using organic materials inclined to weathering and deterioration, her work, always characterised by a gentle touch, traces the ever-changing behaviour of nature and evokes a sense of temporality and movement. 
Featured is Wakely's series of black-and-white photographs, It is so green outside it’s difficult to leave the window. Taken from the kitchen window of her first floor flat on Falkland Road, Kentish Town, London, the photographs document the transformation of an outdoor garden below from spring 1974 to spring 1979. Essentially a love letter to the man who lived downstairs, the photographs were later published in 1980 as a book under the same name, representing a rare example of the artist's literary work. The eponymous series laid the ground for future installations, for which the artist is perhaps best known, that test the dynamics between domestic objects and their surrounding environments.  Other works showcased as part of the online exhibition include photographs of other people's gardens, as well as sketches of the artist's own outdoor space and other natural elements. The subject matter together with Wakely's chosen materials, whether copper etchings, translucent paper or gilded fruit, combine to suggest both the fragility and circularity of nature – themes so inherent to the artist's work. 
Wakely was part of the alchemy of the British Sculpture Movement of the 1980s, with fellow artists Richard DEACON, Barry FLANAGAN, Shirazeh HOUSHIARY and Anish KAPOOR, amongst others.  Born in a small village in England in 1932, Wakely began her training as a research agronomist before turning to the arts to study painting and screen-printing at the Chelsea College of Art from 1958 to 1962. Working until her death in 2011, Wakely's career spanned nearly four decades and comprised an impressive body of work that included sculpture, installation, drawings, prints and video. Despite the diversity of her work, her oeuvre circled around a cluster of themes relating to fragility, time, aging and decay, all united by her singular interest in 'the surface' – as a shield, a barrier, a sign, a veneer.