What if, in the face of global emergency, we slowed down? What if, in the face of catastrophe, we allowed ourselves to partake in pleasurable activities, and prioritized rest and care? While it may sound like a very very privileged thing to do, it is only in the nourishment of our bodies, minds and spirits can we find enough strength to continue. The act of "slowing down in the face of the storm", as Dr. Bayo Akomolafe puts it, is at the core of this project.
The themes of stillness, grief, change and the human connection to the natural world
and the cosmos is depicted through symbolic language.
Rest is a radical threat to the system that feeds on the grind of urgency. "We are living and participating in violence via a machine level pace of functioning. Anyone who goes against this pace is living as an outlier".
(Trisha Hersey of the Nap Ministry.).
There is value in a humble pace of being. I want us to counteract the violent capitalistic ideology of progress which places production and profits above nature and life. The opposite of progress is not stagnation,
There is value in a humble pace of being. I want us to counteract the violent capitalistic ideology of progress which places production and profits above nature and life. The opposite of progress is not stagnation,
but connection and responsibility.
Through my altars and rugs, I wish to invite you to contemplate the relationship between human beings, animals, nature and the suffering of the climate catastrophe. I invite you to slow down and focus on rest and community care in the face of destruction, because these are beneficial to the process of healing the earth as well as ourselves. Let go for a moment of the desire to fix, to solve, and simply surrender and see
what comes up for you when you are allowed to stand still.
From the Neolithic period women were making cloths and fabrics which not only had a practical purpose but were also used to communicate. Textile art can relay information. Through color, symbols and patterns you can record history, origin stories and information about the natural and spiritual world. While prehistoric textiles have not survived the passage of time, clay sculptures have. In my altars I’m paying tribute to thousands of years in which human beings have lovingly molded the clay of the earth into zoomorphic and anthropomorphic figures. I am inspired not only by neolithic art but also by folk art, which over the years have taught me much about the importance of collective care and knowledge. Folk art is not individualistic, but is the art of the folk, the people. Wisdom is passed down through generations via symbols which can be repeated over and over again.
The topic of this project was, on the one hand, about taking care of ourselves and prioritizing rest, and on the other hand it's about the narratives we tell ourselves about the climate crisis and who is responsible for it.
I think it's really important to address the harmful myths that human beings are inherently short-sighted, selfish and a "plague" upon the earth. It's very easy to say it's just because of natural human selfishness that the planet is dying, but actually it's the result of a powerful elite of people and an economic system that has put profit and "growth" over any living being. Endless consumption, powered by fossil fuels... more importantly though, who does it help when we call ourselves a virus? Who does it help when we give up on ourselves as a species and on our place in the world? When people say that humans are a ‘virus’ on the earth, even going as far as saying that we are "overpopulating" and "in need of a cull", that's ecofascism. It's a racist, colonial, eugenic and simply misanthropic argument that only serves to divert attention from the actions
I think it's really important to address the harmful myths that human beings are inherently short-sighted, selfish and a "plague" upon the earth. It's very easy to say it's just because of natural human selfishness that the planet is dying, but actually it's the result of a powerful elite of people and an economic system that has put profit and "growth" over any living being. Endless consumption, powered by fossil fuels... more importantly though, who does it help when we call ourselves a virus? Who does it help when we give up on ourselves as a species and on our place in the world? When people say that humans are a ‘virus’ on the earth, even going as far as saying that we are "overpopulating" and "in need of a cull", that's ecofascism. It's a racist, colonial, eugenic and simply misanthropic argument that only serves to divert attention from the actions
of those that benefit most from a capitalistic system.
I want to inspire people to look past that and try to see that there are many ways in which people can live and be part of nature and actually have a positive impact on the world around them. how can we fix the climate crisis if we don't even believe we have a place in this world? when we believe that no matter what we do,
we just don't belong here?
I named my project "Invitation", after Mary Oliver's poem, which beautifully encapsulates the necessity of taking a moment to linger and reflect in this "broken world". My sincere hope is that you find in this body of work a moment to contemplate that, yes, we have reached a critical point in our history on this earth- that we may never recover what we have lost- but that justice can also be found in the slowing down, so that we may not recreate the very structures that brought us to this crisis.
