Webs

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Zooming in on plastic strapping threaded together to form #LitterCUBE                                 J Barton

My ongoing musings on our entanglement with plastic pollution and its interconnectedness  with the sustainability of our environment both here in Scotland and globally was greatly aided by visitng the  most recent An Talla Solais exhibition Murmur an exhibition of 5 women artists  reflecting on Climate Change .

Both the exhibition and a gallery talk by  John McIntyre (scientist) illustrated  the linkage between our actions and changes in world ecology.  John used this diagram called a  ‘Muir Web‘ drawn by Landscape ecologist  Chris Harrison as a visualization of habitat relationships and ecological associations of the Manhattan island, circa 1609.

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John Muir:  “When we try to pick out anything by itself we find that it is bound fast by a thousand invisible cords that cannot be broken, to everything in the universe.”

Our inter-connectedness and responsibility to the environment, our species and each other was further wonderfully delivered that evening in a film of the American  philosopher/artist Donna Haraway entitled ‘Story Telling for Earthly Survival’  by film-maker Fabrizio Terranova.  Donna animatedly tells  anecdotes of her dogs prowess at complex agility courses, adding another layer to her own visual analogy of  our ecological and social mesh being as a ‘Cats Cradle’

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As I begin to select elements of the NEO Terra exhibition to take to Holyrood  in December to share with MSP’s and Ministers I am convinced of the importance of taking the #LitterCUBES particularly this one made from strapping  to help with imagining the depth and complexity of the issue that we are all enmeshed in.

COPcube2 - J BartonMy intention is to engage as many people as possible in the seeing of  the ecological web/mesh we hold in our hands.  To do this I am working up an idea to tour the       #LitterCUBES ( in much bigger forms) to harbours and festivals around the coast.

Please leave any suggestions  below of possible locations,  where you can see this working and ways to help raise funding to make this happen .  Thank you

 

One thought on “Webs

  1. Great to receive your update and that sounds like a fantastic lead on at An Tallas Solais, and what a great progression. I hope that has really fed in to your work fruitfully. The web and interconnection such a central theme in Buddhist thought too. So exciting the idea of taking cubes to Holyrood and will look forward to following how it all goes.

    Great to receive your update and that sounds like a fantastic lead on at An Tallas Solais, and what a great progression. I hope that has really fed in to your work fruitfully. The web and interconnection such a central theme in Buddhist thought too. So exciting the idea of taking cubes to Holyrood and will look forward to following how it all goes.

    Everything well here – Awena exploring University possibilities so we are on the road – Stirling and York this weekend. She is getting started on her last year at school quite positively at the moment and and we are all turning around for a new start of term. Am away leading a retreat next week. I just noticed the birches really starting to turn here – bracken going. Bronnie volunteering in a remote village in Nepal -no wifi AT ALL just occasional abbreviated text on a Nepalese sim card evoking images of waterfalls, children playing and green rice paddies! The wifi crackled for a few seconds at the school when the electricity came on briefly after dark and we caught a glimpse of her white t-shirt and lots of white teeth of smiling children shining in the dark!!!!

    Sending lots of love from us all

    Gwennie

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