From shoot to bud to flower to fruit, spring is a time

of renewal and fertility. Buds unfold and point

towards the warm, sensual summer season

ahead, a fleeting moment of sweet-scented

fullness before decay.

About

A small team of curators: Rebecca Hallett,  Davinia-Ann Robinson,  Boudicca Collins, Nelly Curtis and Jessica Mautner, will be bringing together a diverse range of artists and exhibit their work at the Parlour Project Space in Kentish Town, London, as part of a three week-long exhibition called ‘Come What May’ from 19th May to 26th May 2011.

Darling Buds is a phrase that refers to the opening buds that point toward the warm summer season ahead and to the freshness and exuberance of youth as it turns toward maturity. It probably refers not to the month of May directly but to the May tree (the Common Hawthorn) that flowers in England at that time of year. The hawthorn is important in the mythology of old England and there's a rich symbolism wrought from its standing as an early flowering common tree. The phrase is also featured in Shakespeare’s celebrated sonnet 18.

The Curators have selected a diverse range of artists that explore and interpret the theme ‘Darling Buds’ through, painting, drawing, installation, sculpture and other imaginative pieces of art.