RACHY MCEWAN
Rachy McEwan is an interdisciplinary artist, design researcher, and technologist based in London. Her practice combines art, interactive systems, and emerging technologies to investigate urban ecologies, digital infrastructures, and more-than-human interaction. Working across painting, programming, 3D imaging, speculative design, and installation, she develops participatory experiences that examine how technological systems shape perception, behaviour, and environmental relationships.
Rachy graduated with a First Class BA in Painting and Printmaking from The Glasgow School of Art, where she received the RSA New Contemporaries Award, and later completed an MA in Material Futures at Central Saint Martins with Distinction, where she was shortlisted for the Maison/0 LVMH Maison Award. Her work has been exhibited internationally across London, Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Estonia, and Glasgow, including presentations at Saatchi Galleryand BASE Milano.
Alongside her artistic practice, Rachy works as a design researcher with the Design Museum, developing projects exploring environmental sensing, participatory technologies, and ecological futures. She frequently collaborates across disciplines including engineering, arboriculture, science, and creative technology, combining technical experimentation with critical and conceptual inquiry.
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DON’T FUCK WITH TREES2024
little ghost, tall
oriental sycamore
the one i adore
entangled camo
the london plane tree
so much to see
yet
very free
Don’t Fuck with Trees tells a story rooted in research-based artwork, aiming to transcend fixed outcomes while exploring the complexities inherent in speculative domains. The London Plane, the protagonist, is a tree that fell in Soho Square, London—an emblematic focal point for analysis—succumbing to root rot and raising critical questions about the entanglement of climate change within our ecological systems.
Through this installation, the tree's essence is rejuvenated using audio, painting, and digital mediums.The London Plane Tree (Platanus x hispanica) is a non-native tree: a hybrid of the Oriental plane (P. orientalis) and the American sycamore (P. occidentalis). The mottled olive, brown, and grey bark breaks away in large flakes to reveal new yellow-colored bark underneath. This process cleanses the tree of pollution that has been stored in the outer bark. The London plane is valued for its ability to adapt to urban conditions and its resistance to pollution, making it the most common tree in London.As this tree extends its roots from the physical into the digital realm, the boundaries between human, technology, and ecological systems blur.
The immersive audio takes audiences on a journey—from mycelium-tree root electrical signals to the xylem tubes that transport water from roots to the tree's crown. Within the network of mycorrhizal fungi, we witness the dissolution of self-boundaries—illustrating that we are all porous, interconnected, and entangled.