Stinging nettle is a 'cure all' plant with a history long and old. It was part of the plant repertoire of paleo Americans, Curcumpolar and Russion peoples. It was used for Rhumetism, as a styptic, and as a tea for blood cleansing and skin ailments. It is linked etymologically to the word sew, nettle was woven into fabric and used for ropes. It is the main ingredient in nettle or Thursday soup a medieval soup made of weeds and herbs. It has been said to help secure breast milk supply and to block fatabsorption. Its is believed people were brushed with nettles to bring back presence of mind. It is said to have been thrown in fires to avert danger, on amulets, to remove a curse and to 'contain the heat of sinful passion.' Nettle is part is the Nine Herbs charm and was used as a metabolic stimulant and to brew beer.

Ann Shelton (b. 1967, Pākehā/Italian) identifies as queer, lives in Aotearoa New Zealand and exhibits internationally. Her first solo museum exhibition in the US was hosted by Alice Austen House, whose Press also published her recent award-winning artist book worm, root, wort…& bane, both in 2024. This was the most recent of several solo and group exhibitions in the United States, over the last decade. 2025 also saw significant exhibitions of Shelton’s work in European Museums and festivals including Saatchi Gallery, London, Centre Photographie, Geneve, Switzerland, Getxophoto 2025, Getxo, Spain, Museum Sinclair-Haus, Bad Homburg, Germany and at BIO 28 Double Agent: Do you speak flower?, 28th Biennial of Design, Ljubljana, Slovenia.

Shelton’s recent body of work, jane says, has been exhibited widely internationally and the accompanying performance The physical garden, has been performed numerous times. Her museum survey, Dark Matter, curated by Zara Stanhope (Director, Govett-Brewster Art Gallery) was hosted by Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki in 2016 and toured to Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū in 2017.

Shelton’s work engages with questions around the disciplined body, and how that discipline is organised around gender, sexuality, misogyny, medicine, food, or crime. Her most recent research dialogues with plant knowledge and the impacts of plants on the body, particularly their history relating to medicinal practices. It draws on the re-construction of the role of women in Western Society since the witch hunts in early modern Europe, the role of plants historically in reproductive contexts, and the relationship to contemporary feminisms and the current climate emergency. Shelton’s work has been extensively reviewed in publications including Artforum, Hyperallergic, artnet news, and Evergreen Review. Her work is collected in public and private contexts throughout Aotearoa, Australia, Europe, and North America. Shelton is Honorary Research Fellow in Photography at Whiti o Rehua, School of Art, Massey University, Te Kunenga ki Pūrehuroa.

Shelton is represented by Two Rooms and Jhana Millers Gallery