Fled is that Music, 2023

The Wild Escape, Natural History Museum

For her contribution to the project, Mark Wallinger created the work Fled is that Music, inspired by Ode to a Nightingale (1819) by the Romantic English poet John Keats.

As the artist explained: “Nightingales have now lost 93% of their numbers since the ’60s and are in danger on these shores. The idea that this small bird that inspired one of the greatest works in English literature is threatened is devastating. So I’ve redacted 93% of Keats’ Ode to a Nightingale to leave the final four-and-a-half lines as the nightingale and its song recedes and disappears."

Wallinger added, “Young people are our hope. They’re our best and only hope. So it is absolutely crucial to instil and encourage this message of fragility and the sorry state we have reached.”

More than 500 museums from across the UK have joined together to launch an artist-led campaign highlighting the dramatic loss of biodiversity in the UK. The project, titled "The Wild Escape", is one of the largest museum projects ever funded by Arts Council England and leading British artists including Mark Wallinger, Yinka Shonibare, Es Devlin and FKA Twigs have created original works to support it.

"The Wild Escape" aims to inspire UK primary school age children to create artworks of their own, inspired by animals, insects and plants that they encounter in UK museums. "It will create a new relationship between museums and the natural world aiming to shape the lives of the children who participate," a press statement says.



Link to read the Art Newspaper article by Tom Seymour