Regeneration, Reciprocity
March 5th - April 10, 2022: Wall painting made as part of All Flourishing Is Mutual at Melkweg Expo. The mural is a multispecies “memento mori” that points to the fact that humans are not only consumers, but also get consumed when their lives end. The image of a fox and a human taking a seat at the table symbolises species listening to each other's ideas, wants, and needs. The meeting takes place at a giant mushroom table, hinting at the mysterious fungi that span both life and death, and which come to fruition while decomposing other beings.
The chair is made of rosemary, acknowledging how dependent humans are on plants in order to survive and sustain themselves, and how much we rely on the wisdom and the gifts of many other species. The fox and woman know that what was received with gratitude and their own flesh and bones will be returned and reciprocated at the end of their lifecycle.
"Share it, as the Earth has shared with you. Be grateful. Reciprocate the gift. Sustain the ones who sustain you, and the Earth will last forever."
– Robin Wall Kimmerer
A Ram’s Head at the Foot of a Birch: A Lover’s Offering
February 2022: I created and distributed a publication featuring drawings, paintings, and four unconventional love poems. The poetry chapbook is made of sustainable newsprint and was printed and bound in Amsterdam.
Love poems can take place across time, in polyphony, and with viewpoints and narratives that go beyond my human-individual viewpoint. Love poems can be uncomfortable, uneasy, unclear. They can take place in another time or in non-verbal language, in a dreamscape where plants can visit, crows can listen to my questions, where rotting fungi and birch trees and touch and care mingle.
Sensemaking: Visual Ethnography Workshop
September 29, 2021: Amsterdamse Bos - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Students. I gave a lecture on visual ethnography, and how drawing and visual methods can enrich and become a vital part of the fieldwork process. I then gave a workshop on different observational approaches to drawing.
Weeds Workshop: Sensory Drawing & Sound Play
September 19, 2021: We worked with weeds and plants growing on the Four Sisters garden plot. We used our senses to interact with the more-than-human around us. This included reading a poem out loud together, drinking and tasting herbal teas, practicing sensory drawings, and creating soundscapes with the plants.
Wyrtig, Weedy House
July 1- July 4, 2021: In collaboration with Liza, Wyrtig, Weedy House was an installation and performance piece shown within Prospects Art Rotterdam. Performers inhabited the greenhouse structure. We created and decorated objects and furniture to place inside the greenhouse, as well as bringing in local plants, and materials to craft or make tinctures. While in the greenhouse, the performers recited our re-worked version of a 10th century poem, “The Nine Herbs Charm” while making herbal tea, doing activities of their choosing, and tending to the plants. By reciting aloud, and re-imagining this poem, we hope we can give voice to our collaborative work with each other and plants. This work is inherited, this work is reoccurring, this work is situated both in time as in our bodies.
During the fair, our greenhouse became a space for ‘Greenness’ a performative singing workshop created and facilitated by Bergur Thomas Andersen.
Thank you to Brittany Thorpe for designing and producing our exquisite costumes, and to our incredible performers who brought the space to life: Leonie Kuipers, Billy Morgan, Thom Driver, Vera Mennens, Emma van Herk, Carolien de Valk, Alina Setjowikarto, Ylja Band, Martin Esseman, Rebekka Bank, Michał Sypień, Aimée Theriot and Janna van Welsem, Katrina Niebergal, Mylan Hoezen.
Stories of Weeds
March 28th, 2021: Comprised of contributions from 40+ artists, writers, herbalists, music makers, environmental educators, witches, doctors, sex workers; people of different ages, races, sexual orientations and gender identities - in other words: our friends, collaborators, loved ones, and members of our community.
We recognize resonances between weeds as disparaged and unwanted plant matter and practices which have been overlooked within a neoliberalist context; practices that are typically enacted by femmes and marginalized folks.
The book is sold out but limited copies remain available for purchase at Athenaeum Boekhandel or San Serriffe, Amsterdam.
Together In Spirit
March 5th, 2021: Reneenee Gallery, Amsterdam.
A collaborative effort, we performed a re-written/contemporary version of the Nine Herbs Charm, an old English charm recorded in the tenth-century CE, that describes preparations of nine plants that still live/grow in our vicinities today. Our guests became participants as we read the poem aloud together, and partook in a collective ritual involving fresh cut rosemary and spirits.
Snaky Zine
March 2021: Two of my illustrations as well as a collaborative essay were published in Snaky Zine’s Magic Issue
Fire Cider
January 2021: Created a limited batch of immune-boosting Fire Cider and an accompanying mini-publication to distribute within the community.
A Sister’s Web
December 10-20, 2020: Installation made in collaboration, part of the Acts of Archiving group show, Het Wilde Weten, Rotterdam. Video edited by Layla Durrani.
photo by Liza Prins
photos by Yvon Ariese
