I am a Bowerbird by Izzy Plant at The Hidden Wardrobe

Event, Exhibitions, Free, In Person

Friday 31st October 6:00pm – Sunday 7th December 2025

92 Old Northam Rd Southampton SO14 0PB

Launch Event: Friday 31st October, 6pm – 7:30pm 

Izzy works through crafting techniques to create large, imposing sculptures and installations, made of any materials she can get her hands on. She constructs other-worldly environments residing in, what she coins as, Isotopia, occupied by abject assemblages and collages that are both impressive and intimidating. Her practice is informed by her identity, particularly as a Bisexual Woman, from a slow-paced city within the UK. For a Plant to grow you need the right environment.

 

“The Bowerbird, named after their innate ritual to decorate nests (bowers), made from sticks, leaves, and found items. This behaviour is not dissimilar from my own (practice), I gather, observe, and create: enriching my life with authenticity. I embrace my suppressed extravagance through the abject.

 

From and with my environment, I craft. Reclaiming agency over the connection I have to making by stripping back the intended use of waste and found objects; creating freely. 

 

They become ornamental. Adornments to my nest.

 

This sculptural entanglement is a surreal manifestation of the dialects to my identity and circumstance. There is an overwhelming desire to embrace my nature, my otherness: an existence self-perceived as the potential for opportunity, concern, intrigue and fear, which instinctually inspires a turn towards what I am is familiar with. Walking as practice, hands-on sensory engagement, and enjoyment.

My head hangs low, but with that comes potential. Like a child, I see beauty between the steps. 

I scavenge. I forage.

 

Threaded in my hands: that’s where it begins.”