A Dive Into Interconnectedness

By: Victoria Espinoza

For portion of the quilt, I’ll be tackling how interconnectedness is the key to reversing our ideals on climate change, and how not only one philosophy is the correct approach to this topic. Diving into the differences in cultural approaches allows us to examine how we have lost our connection and relationship with nature as we have transitioned into the capitalist, and more recklessly innovated society that we currently reside in.

Marjolijn Dijkman, That What Makes Us Human, 2016, Bronze and Titanium.³

“There was a word inside a stone. I tried to pry it clear, mallet and chisel, pick and gad, until the stone was dropping blood, but still I could not hear the word the stone had said. I threw it down beside the road among a thousand stones and as I turned away it cried the word aloud within my ear and the marrow of my bones heard, and replied.”¹³ This poem is “Marrow” by Ursula Le Guin, and it exemplifies not only our symbiotic relationship with nature but also the separation we make between how we treat ourselves and how we treat inanimate objects. Le Guin makes a parallel between the destruction we have caused to the earth, not only making it bleed, as we would, but also hearing its hurt within our own bones. “That What Makes Us Human”⁴ by Marjolijn Dijkmann proposes this aspect of evolution; We as people not only came from what we deem insignificant to our daily lives but we use this insignificance to damage. Dijkman, a dutch artist, made this sculpture using bronze for the formation of the hand and a titanium copy of meteorite for the stone. We see the symbolism that we hold in our hands the capacity to destroy such as an asteroid would. We hold in our hands the capacity to control the destruction we have laid onto this earth and the power to reduce the damage we have caused.

John Akomfrah, Purple, 2017, Film Still.⁴

“Purple”⁵ by John Akomfrah was composed of several images spread over multiple screens in the original presentation of the piece. Here we are looking at an image of someone standing amongst a landscape of trees that have been eradicated. We find representation, not only for the loss of our wilderness, but also the dislocation of our relationship with nature. This image and several others were meant to show a parallel to the romanticism of landscape paintings. Our need to extract and expand has taken away the lust and serene beauty of natural landscapes. Even in the attempt to try and reconvene our relationship with nature we will be connecting with the damage we have already imposed. An altered natural state in need of healing hands. “Ecology describes the study of the relationships between organisms and their environments: both the places where they live and the thicket of relationships that sustain them. Inspired by the work of Alexander von Humboldt, the study of ecology emerged from the idea that nature is an interconnected whole, “a system of active forces.” Organisms could not be understood in isolation.”¹² This definition of ecology was written by Merlin Sheldrake, and with this insinuation that we cannot understand ourselves without being intertwined with other organisms brings us into a view where we cannot distance ourselves from nature any longer. To understand ourselves we need to understand the micro aspect of our being that relates us to nature. The intertwining of our DNA, the similarities between how our beings regulate themselves are overall not that different. We have the same basic overall functions for survival.

Reena Kallat, Siamese Trees, 2018–19, Cable.²

“Siamese Trees”³ by Reena Kallat is described as “an allusion to nature's defiance to artificially imposed, man-made divisions on the ground”.⁴ The trees composed within this piece have been formed into the shape of human lungs made out of electricity cables. Not only does this image and medium comment on nature's reclaiming of space, but also, in doing so we can find a future where this symbiosis between us and nature is once again realized, and I think that this image shows that wonderfully within different cultural and physical boundaries as the trees represent different cultural and idealized borders between communities. Our designation of country trade dynamics, and the industrialization of the world in general deems this separation within the hierarchy we have created. A hierarchy separate from nature and in turn separating us. “Siamese Trees”⁴ constitutes this realization that with nature reclaiming space we are given this opportunity to severe these distinctions of classes we have forced upon ourselves. To be one cohesive, natural being we should not be separating ourselves from those that make our species distinctive.

Nandita Kumar, The Unwanted Ecology, 2017, Weeds and Sound Frequency.⁵

“The Unwanted Ecology”⁶ by Nandita Kumar is a piece composed of “weeds” that have been encased in jars matched with sound frequency. In the original presentation of this piece there was a book placed amongst the plants describing their medicinal qualities which provides as Fowkes says, “ethnobotanical knowledge that risks being lost as local healers disappear.”⁶ A multitude of cultures contain different methods on how to care for one another such as local healers. Through our implementation of the practice of extractivism and composition of synthetic medicine through big pharma we not only lose the resources to treat others in a traditional manner, but we also lose those that have the knowledge of traditional medicinal practices.

Heather Phillipson, put the goat in the goat boat, 2014, Film.³

“Put the goat in the goat boat”⁴ by Heather Phillipsons was a film created to touch on the separation we have caused within how we reference nature and the reality of the world. This film not only represents the cruelty we have laid upon animals but also the cruelty we have laid upon ourselves. Cultural standards today veer so far off from our natural way of being that we don’t see ourselves in that way. We feel we need to make ourselves presentable to a man made society, and follow the laws that society has laid onto us. In nature, everything is free of social constructs, there is no judgment, just symbiosis and survival. Phillipson says that “before being humans, or ideas, or genders we are primarily animals”. This connects with rifkins idea that there is a “harmonization within nature”.⁴ By the action of separating ourselves from our basic identification of being a species that has evolved from nature we experience this disconnect from harmonization.

Ursula Biemann, Forest Law, 2014, Film Still.¹

Lastly, “Forest Law”¹ by Ursula Biemann was taken in the Ecuadorian Amazon during an oil and mining exploration. This is only one of several images that were taken and shown in the final piece. This particular image was meant to show how extractivism has caused an immense struggle for indigenous communities. Those communities who live off and with the earth, protect it and care for it, have been practicing sustainability, adaptability long before it was a social trend. We are tearing away not only their land but also the connection with nature they have kept and sustained. This brings forward the question of, who has intrinsic rights to this earth? Those who have strayed and damaged the land due to the social construct of ownership or those who have cared and nurtured it. We should be looking towards those who have been maintaining these practices for advice on how we can treat the damage we have caused, and for sustainable practices we can implement into our lives to prevent future advancement of destruction and extractivism.

To treat the earth in a sufficient way, for the sake of our survival, we need to respect those who were treating the land first. No one philosophy or religion is completely correct when it comes to our relationships with nature. What matters is that we at the very least maintain some connection instead of none at all. To have empathy for nature, and sympathy from our own experiences compared to what we have caused will not only strengthen our connection but change the perspective we take on a day to day basis. We change the environment plants experience just as plants do the same for us. We are not separate, we are inexplicably intertwined, and it's time we recognize this before that possible reconnection is severed forever.

Bibliography Endnote

1. Alonso, Azar, Curran, DeSoto, Fowkes, Hällgren, Husberg, Laberge, López, Mackey, Sheren, Sgaramella, Torres, Valero, eds. Mutating Ecologies in Contemporary Art. Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona.
2. Fowkes M., Fowkes R. "Botanical Politics.” In Art and Climate Change (World of Art). W.W. Norton, 2022.
3. Fowkes M., Fowkes R. “Entangled Terrestrials.” In Art and Climate Change (World of Art). W.W. Norton, 2022.
4. Fowkes M., Fowkes R. "Reparative Histories.” In Art and Climate Change (World of Art). W.W. Norton, 2022.
5. Fowkes M., Fowkes R. "Self-Management of Plants.” In Art and Climate Change (World of Art). W.W. Norton, 2022.
6. Rifkin, Jeremy. The age of resilience: Reimagining existence on a Rewilding Earth. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Press, an imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2022.
7. Robyn Maynard, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. 2022. Rehearsals for Living. Vol. 3. La Vergne: Haymarket Books.
8. Sheldrake, Merlin. 2020. Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds and Shape Our Futures. First edition. New York: Random House Publishing Group.
9. Tsing, Anna Lowenhaupt, Bubandt, Nils, Gan, Elaine, and Swanson, Heather Anne, eds. 2017. Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet : Ghosts and Monsters of the Anthropocene. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. Accessed December 10, 2023. ProQuest Ebook Central