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Into the Orchard

Exhibitions: FREE

(No booking required)

Into the Orchard

Saturday 04 October 2025 - Sunday 22 February 2026

Galleries

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Apples ripening in the orchard

Apples in the packing shed

Take a walk through the seasons at Crapes Fruit Farm in Essex in this immersive audio-visual exhibition by artists Hana Loftus and Maddie Persent.

 

A year in the orchard

Beginning in January 2024, the artists documented a year’s cycle at Crapes – a sixteen-acre orchard near Aldham where over two hundred varieties of apple, as well as pears, plums, gages, quince, and medlar are grown and distributed nationwide.

Walking the orchards with farmer Andrew Tann, they recorded sounds and captured photographs that reveal the quiet rhythms of farm life.

 

What to expect

Now this captivating world of Crapes comes to Firstsite. Step into the orchard and journey through the seasons in an immersive audio-visual installation created by the two artists.

Through projections and soundtrack drawn from the audio field recordings, experience the hum of bees, birdsong, the rustle of leaves, and the changing sights of soil, trees, tools, and fruit.

You’ll explore the daily work, seasonal changes, and rich biodiversity that make Crapes so unique.

Alongside the installation, archival material traces the story of this century-old fruit farm, nurtured through three generations of the Tann family since 1922.

Over this time, it has evolved into an extraordinary place through Andrew’s curiosity and experimentation focused on a partnership with the ecosystem, rather than seeking its domination.

Find out more about Crapes Fruit Farm

 

About the artists

Hana Loftus is a writer and designer with a focus on rural places. Her work has encompassed architecture, landscape design and planning as well as writing and documenting places and people in a range of media.

Hana is co-director of the architecture and planning practice HAT Projects, based in Colchester and working in communities across East Anglia and beyond. Born in Suffolk and of Japanese and English parentage, she is currently working on her first book, which was shortlisted for the Fitzcarraldo Essay Prize earlier in 2025.

 

Maddie Persent takes photographs, mostly on 35mm film. Born in Colchester and shaped by formative years in Tokyo, she is interested in photographing places and built forms.

After years of working with her phone as a medium, she returned to film in 2023. For her, the process is as important as the image; in an age of instant access and endless screens, film offers space to slow down, listen and capture what could otherwise be overlooked.

 

The exhibition has been made possible with the support of Arts Council England, Trevor Fenwick, and Tiptree (Wilkin & Sons Limited).
OPENING TIMES

Monday

Closed

Tuesday

10am - 5pm

Wednesday

10am - 5pm

Thursday

10am - 10pm

Friday

10am - 10pm

Saturday

10am - 10pm

Sunday

10am - 5pm

Join our Mosaic membership and get more from your visit

Mosaic members get unlimited free access to all our film screenings, 20% off our event cinema screenings, 20% off our workshops and talks, 10% off in our café and shop. Plus you don’t have to pay any ticket fees.

If you join as a Member + Guest you can share your member benefits with someone special too!

As a Mosaic member, you help support our community projects and events and keep our exhibitions free to everyone.

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