'soft landing' is a love song dedication to my two sons. Made in response to the challenges of raising boys within a violent world in deep social and ecological crisis, the works in this exhibition represent an urgent desire to shower my children in flowers and a sense of radical hope for their futures. Marking the second in a series of exhibitions inspired by a walking ritual performed with my youngest son in which we document our affective encounters touching and talking to plants. Together we photograph each other’s careful touch, wilfully suspending the moment of contact as we talk about the way a plant feels and smells. This playful process holds a certain magic for us, drawn from the rhythms of everyday life, it brings us closer to together as we share in the experience of learning how to connect with this place we call home – as we try to make our way as settlers and visitors on the unceded Country of the Dja Dja Wurrung people. Across the exhibition, the moment of touch is represented in paint and invited through the haptic quality of textiles and soft sculpture. Touching and talking to plants highlights what is at stake when living earthbound – like a plant. These works, and the collaborative processes involved in their making, question what careful time spent encountering and contemplating the lives of these enigmatic more-than-human keepers-of-place might teach us about other, more gentle ways of being in and of the world.[1] - Kylie Banyard [1] Clark, Martin. The Botanical Mind: Art, Mysticism and the Cosmic Tree, ‘On Being Sessile’, Camden Art Centre, 2021, p. 183. https://www.verge-gallery.net/exhibitions-new/kyliebanyard-softlanding