Reconnecting to Nature: How are artists guiding people to think about their relationship with ‘more than humans’?
“When times are easy and there’s plenty to go around, the individual species can go at it alone. When times are harsh and life is tenuous, it takes a team sworn to reciprocity to keep life going forward. In a world of scarcity, interconnection and mutual aid become critical for survival. So say the lichens.”
- Robin Wall Kimmerer
Recently, Arahmaiani’s ‘Memory of Nature’ installation was shown in the exhibition ‘On the Nature of Botanical Gardens’ at Framer Framed in Amsterdam. The living artwork consisted of a wooden frame in the shape of a Mandala that was filled with soil and mung bean seeds. As time passed, the soil started to be covered by green shoots of young plants, which were grown, tended to and watered during the exhibition. The circular mandala is known as a representation of the universe so the use of this form invites us to consider the universe and natural environments. As an artist, Arahmaiani focuses on the values that form the basis of human’s respect and appreciation for nature, so that the Earth is not only understood in terms of its exploitation. The artist marvels at how mankind has the capacity to forget that, ‘life is a beautiful garden and fails to care for it.’
Arahmaiani, Memory of Nature, 2020, wood, soil and vegetation, Framer Framed (Amsterdam), Photo by Eva Broekema
Since the Enlightenment, we have progressively mentally separated ourselves from what Debra Solomon refers to as ‘more than humans’. The western template for global development has been characterised by an expectation that one kind of civilisation - metropolitan and capital-oriented - leads to progress. In her research project ‘Multispecies Urbanism’, Solomon looks into urban planning where humans become participants of multispecies communities nurturing urban ecosystems.
A recent study has proved that the more people are exposed to nature in their local areas, the more they value the natural world and see the importance of greener choices. Today, 55% of the world’s population lives in urban areas, a proportion that is expected to increase to 68% by 2050. This could lead to more and more people having very little contact to nature which as a result could have a huge impact on how we approach sustainable goals and regenerative practices.
Hannah Segerkrantz, Forest Archive, 2020, video & website, Photo by Nicole Marnati
In her project ‘Forest Archive’, Hannah Segerkrantz invites people to take audio-visual walks through forest provided by forest ambassadors. From wherever you are, you can get practical information on forests, as well as explore personal experiences of people who are finding more harmony with nature. By adding a human layer to the digital experience, Forest Archive helps people understand the value of coexisting with nature and re-discovering intuitive ways to connect with it. If you live near a forest or have a special connection to a forest, you may become a forest ambassador yourself by sharing your story and the story of the natural landscape on a virtually recorded walk.
Linda Tegg, Infield, 2020, plastic, soil and vegetation, Arkdes (Stockholm), Photo: Johan Dehlin
The artist Linda Tegg also explored the relationship between people and nature with her most recent installation ‘Infield’. Transforming the asphalt car park of Arkdes - Sweden’s National Centre for Design and Architecture - this summer into an expansive green meadowland full of plants and other life forms, Tegg invited people to experience being present in harmony with this biodiverse environment. Rewilding the urban landscape with over 60 different plant species native to Sweden, the installation referred to the meadows often adjacent to farms in the past where cattle used to keep fields fertilized and, in turn, the plants were harvested as hay. Using these natural cycles as a metaphor Tegg, aimed to provide an opportunity to discuss ecosystem services and the possibility of a relationship with nature where we create and care for more space for other species to live well.
Finally, it is not coincidence that whilst in the last 50 years we have lost 60% of all wildlife, the number of infectious diseases has quadrupled. Emerging diseases are often the result of humans expanding their urban landscapes and coming into contact with previously untouched wildlife. While we invade forests and other wild landscapes, leading to deforestation and loss of wildlife, we disrupt ecosystems and shake viruses loose from their natural hosts. Often then, the next hosts are us humans.
COVID-19 has highlighted once again that we need to start living in coexistence and symbiosis with natural landscapes rather than dominating or exploiting them as is common in many western societies. What impacts nature also impacts us humans. As David Attenborough put it in his recent film, ‘A Life on our Planet’; “Nature will survive and recover, the question is if we humans will experience it.”
Weaving Realities Collective, Ayotzinapa - Women Made of Corn, participatory performance, Amsterdam
In their project ‘Ayotzinapa’, the artist collective Weaving Realities, Yuchen Li and Aldo Esparza Ramos, opened a space for dialogue and to celebrate the lives and struggles of women in resistance to the colonial and patriarchal systems. Focusing on the resistance of indigenous communities in Mexico, they invited three guests, Mayra Telumbre, Diana Laura Rodriguez and Fernanda Franco, to make ancestral recipes originated from Abya Yala (non-colonized America) together with participants in a performative and participatory cooking event. Using food as a tool to explore how humans relate to the world around them and other human beings, Chilate and Tortillas were made - introducing ancestral knowledge and indigenous people’s relationality through food.
Artists continue to put these issues on the table, searching new ways of seeing and connecting with the environment that sustain us. Hopefully bit by bit helping us to recognise that we humans are part of the world of more than humans and that our health and wellbeing is dependent on all the world’s natural resilience.