The Squirrel’s Heartbeat Transistor (https://transistor.fm) https://feeds.transistor.fm/the-squirrel-s-heartbeat Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England Fiona Banner Studios efdd1914-d555-5444-bb6b-dc328b56739f no Trailer en Fri, 09 Feb 2024 20:06:54 +0000 Tue, 02 Dec 2025 22:04:02 +0000 http://www.fionabanner.com/ https://img.transistor.fm/m9pBtCP1p1i9O28Au5-9b5ybL_2XCj_ilcYqMe1InqA/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:1400/h:1400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9zaG93/LzE2ODU2LzE2MDc2/MDkzMjMtYXJ0d29y/ay5qcGc.jpg The Squirrel’s Heartbeat http://www.fionabanner.com/ episodic Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. Supported using public funding by Arts Council England Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. art, environment, activism, nature, artist, garden, Fiona Banner, Vanity Press Fiona Banner No No The Tai Treeist 4 4 The Tai Treeist full 1da104f0-86cc-45a7-8552-7db2b4d8fc9c https://share.transistor.fm/s/524137d9 Fiona Banner speaks to Johanna Gibbons landscape architect at J&L Gibbons and author of Conversations on Urban Forestry about her love of trees, soil and the world wide wood.
Recorded at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve (Phytology)


Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Fiona Banner speaks to Johanna Gibbons landscape architect at J&L Gibbons and author of Conversations on Urban Forestry about her love of trees, soil and the world wide wood.
Recorded at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve (Phytology)


Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Wed, 17 Mar 2021 13:55:45 +0000 Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press 1084 Tai chiest, tai treeist… Johanna Gibbons, landscape architect, and tree lover talks about urban trees and soil as the most ancient form of internet: the wood wide web. This is the fourth episode of The Squirrel's Heartbeat recorded in the woodland at The Phytology nature reserve in London. Tai chiest, tai treeist… Johanna Gibbons, landscape architect, and tree lover talks about urban trees and soil as the most ancient form of internet: the wood wide web. This is the fourth episode of The Squirrel's Heartbeat recorded in the woodland at The art, environment, activism, nature, artist, garden, Fiona Banner, Vanity Press No Complexity is important for our health! 3 3 Complexity is important for our health! full 69e3923f-06b4-49bc-a1e5-b261a2f8e429 https://share.transistor.fm/s/b5b58ae1 "Michael, I am going to introduce you. And that's not easy, because you are many things and you work in many different fields. But your project is very consistent and focused. So Michael Smythe, artist, activist, producer, horticulturalist... Yeah… When you started to become involved with this space, the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, did you approach it as an artwork in the first place? Or did that grow as the work grew? Because I know that this beautiful Phytology Medical garden that we're sitting looking at here, is a sculptural work and was founded as a sculptural work but it looks like a garden…. of sorts. So I'm intrigued”

If you are intrigued too, listen to this!

Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden..

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> "Michael, I am going to introduce you. And that's not easy, because you are many things and you work in many different fields. But your project is very consistent and focused. So Michael Smythe, artist, activist, producer, horticulturalist... Yeah… When you started to become involved with this space, the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve, did you approach it as an artwork in the first place? Or did that grow as the work grew? Because I know that this beautiful Phytology Medical garden that we're sitting looking at here, is a sculptural work and was founded as a sculptural work but it looks like a garden…. of sorts. So I'm intrigued”

If you are intrigued too, listen to this!

Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden..

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Thu, 11 Feb 2021 11:22:30 +0000 Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press 1232 Fiona Banner speaks to Michael Smythe about her residency at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in London. Fiona Banner speaks to Michael Smythe about her residency at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in London. art, environment, activism, nature, artist, garden, Fiona Banner, Vanity Press No The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog 2 2 The Quick Brown Fox Jumps Over The Lazy Dog full 4a1fbbf1-5fb6-4201-997c-696b44031abc https://share.transistor.fm/s/e738f0be Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press discusses good hair days, bad hair days, foxes, nature, language, the internet, lockdown, anxiety, isolation, and the environment with Dr Omar Kholeif; author, curator and cultural historian, whose recent book Art in the Age of Anxiety is now available and is brilliant. 
Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden..

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press discusses good hair days, bad hair days, foxes, nature, language, the internet, lockdown, anxiety, isolation, and the environment with Dr Omar Kholeif; author, curator and cultural historian, whose recent book Art in the Age of Anxiety is now available and is brilliant. 
Recorded recently, outside at the Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust, overlooking the Phytology Medicine Garden..

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Tue, 19 Jan 2021 13:36:53 +0000 Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press 2097 Discussing good hair days, bad hair days, foxes, nature, language, the internet, lockdown, anxiety, isolation, and the environment with Dr Omar Kholeif author, curator and cultural historian. Discussing good hair days, bad hair days, foxes, nature, language, the internet, lockdown, anxiety, isolation, and the environment with Dr Omar Kholeif author, curator and cultural historian. art, environment, activism, nature, artist, garden, Fiona Banner, Vanity Press No A tree is never going to be a curator, or is it? 1 1 A tree is never going to be a curator, or is it? full 513764dc-7685-4902-a1a1-8965e3d68323 https://share.transistor.fm/s/a7cdbf56 Welcome to The Squirrel's Heartbeat, with Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press and Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries. Fiona and Lucia met recently at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve and talked about stuff. The title of this series comes from a George Eliot quote which Lucia referred to during this conversation, “If we had a keen vision and a feeling of all ordinary human life it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence… As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” It stuck with Fiona as a meditation on language, the medium of their discussion and also the topic of it... but it is also about naming, and in turn classification, and in turn gender (Mary Ann Evans took the name George Eliot in order in order to create an ambiguity around her gender), and in turn the non-binary nature of nature itself and the conundrums we have in naming it or attributing words to it.

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

General Ecology is the Serpentine’s long-term and ongoing project researching complexity, more-than-humanism, climate justice and environmental balance. Founded in 2018, General Ecology is a strategic effort to embed environmental subjects and methods throughout the Galleries’ outputs, structures and networks. General Ecology concerns itself simultaneously with environmental and organisational ecologies.

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Welcome to The Squirrel's Heartbeat, with Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press and Lucia Pietroiusti, Curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries. Fiona and Lucia met recently at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve and talked about stuff. The title of this series comes from a George Eliot quote which Lucia referred to during this conversation, “If we had a keen vision and a feeling of all ordinary human life it would be like hearing the grass grow and the squirrel's heart beat and we should die of that roar which lies on the other side of silence… As it is, the quickest of us walk about well wadded with stupidity.” It stuck with Fiona as a meditation on language, the medium of their discussion and also the topic of it... but it is also about naming, and in turn classification, and in turn gender (Mary Ann Evans took the name George Eliot in order in order to create an ambiguity around her gender), and in turn the non-binary nature of nature itself and the conundrums we have in naming it or attributing words to it.

Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism.  

General Ecology is the Serpentine’s long-term and ongoing project researching complexity, more-than-humanism, climate justice and environmental balance. Founded in 2018, General Ecology is a strategic effort to embed environmental subjects and methods throughout the Galleries’ outputs, structures and networks. General Ecology concerns itself simultaneously with environmental and organisational ecologies.

Thanks to The Arts Council England and Bethnal Green Nature Reserve Trust
Host and Recording: Fiona Banner, Producer: Alice Waters, Sound Production: Lucia Scazzocchio

]]> Mon, 14 Dec 2020 10:20:39 +0000 Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press 1922 Amongst the squirrels, artists Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press speaks with Lucia Pietroiusti, curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries. Amongst the squirrels, artists Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press speaks with Lucia Pietroiusti, curator of General Ecology at Serpentine Galleries. Art, environment, Phytology, Fiona Banner, Lucia Pietroiusti, General ecology, serpentine, The Vanity press, Greenpeace, bethnal green nature reserve No Trailer Trailer trailer a6c3ea97-44ba-4d8a-ad48-47d105adfa38 https://share.transistor.fm/s/530f2363 Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. 

]]> Fiona Banner aka The Vanity Press is a visual artist whose work centres on the problems and possibilities of language, both written and metaphorical. For much of 2020 she has been artist in residence at Phytology, a cultural institute based at Bethnal Green Nature Reserve in East London. During her time there she has been making work with the non-human residents, and also talking to some pretty fab humans, in an open sided potting shed, ruminating on the environment, art and activism. 

]]> Thu, 10 Dec 2020 14:13:07 +0000 Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press Fiona Banner AKA The Vanity Press 60 Welcome to The Squirrels Heartbeat Welcome to The Squirrels Heartbeat art, environment, activism, nature, artist, garden, Fiona Banner, Vanity Press No