Nigel Prentice

Research Centre

From our UK edition

Beyond the measured stretch of lawns and hedges are cultivated rows where snug plastic tunnels creep. Indoors, the fantastic spores fluff up on jelly: fungus rages under glass and germination bristles. In a sealed hot-room, in tanks lined with foil predators quietly chew and scrat; aphids suck their fill of sap. A forest of corn in pots jostles in the breathless light of the glasshouse, each plant drip-fed, wired to dream on growth. This is calm towering work, where light is monastic, clean or flares briefly on a clear pane, a white coat. All builds, for the one to burst into the room with a bouquet, steal the studied scene.