In failing to recognize limitation as a terrain for fertile enquiries, my ancestors came to favour exploitation as a way to ascend. We have caused the downfall of several ecosystems because we wanted to possess the nature’s bounty and beauty. Today, the environmental crisis is forcing us to consider our interconnectedness between all living, non-living, organic and inorganic things on this earth. As the editors of the essay collection Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet suggest in the introduction: “Suffering from the ills of another species: this is the condition of the Anthropocene, for humans and nonhumans alike. This suffering is a matter not just of empathy but also of material interdependence. (Tsing et al. 2017, M4)”
How can a practice rooted in materiality be adapted to the present ecological crisis by not contributing to the surproduction of waste and without falling into desperation and cynicism ? How can we foster an attitude of respect, comprehension, and restriction towards the materials we generate to create an artwork? We must re-imagine our relationship with the resources we use and embrace limitation as a terrain for fertile inquiry.
My research field is that limitation.
Via craftsmanship, patience, and care, I engage with processes of transformation. I delve into new media forms, critical material practices, textiles, and literature, ultimately creating multimedia installations. I make art as a way of resisting desperation, hoping we can find shelter under a silky piece of the fabric of time. I want to weave that shroud to calmly and methodically sheath the remains of our eternal human and non-human endangered bodies.
This work is an ode to the horrific and grandiose wonders we will come in contact with, tomorrow, now, yesterday, and beyond.
PHOTOS: PAUL LITHERLAND