2021 – ongoing

RETURNING THE GIFT

27 pieces
Ø each 40 – 50 cm

In our modern society we live disconnected from nature. We are completely estranged from the systems of production and distribution of the food we eat. Even though spending time outdoors we hardly notice the cyclical processes and their importance. Instead of thinking about our relationship to nature we are using her as a backdrop for photographs, a design element in our gardens or a sports ground for exercising.

Following my experiences during an earlier work about Giving and Taking I am researching now what happens when I continue the practice of gratitude together with other people. In collaboration with human and non-human participants I build outdoor art installations. Human participants create art objects which will be set free in nature afterwards. The further design process by non-human creatures will be documented with photographs in a digital exhibition.

The artistic act of creating a gift constitutes a connection to the spiritual tradition of offerings. It means not only creating an art object, but also building a space for communication and experience between humans and non-human beings. What happens to us when we take care of nature? What happens to us when we understand non-human beings as co-creators?

The development of this project was inspired by plant ecologist Robin Wall Kimmerer. She says: “We are showered every day with the gifts of the Earth, gifts we have neither earned nor paid for: air to breathe, nurturing rain, black soil, berries and honeybees, the tree that became this page, a bag of rice and the exuberance of a field of goldenrod and asters at full bloom.
Though the Earth provides us with all that we need, we have created a consumption- driven economy that asks, ‘What more can we take from the Earth?’ and almost never ‘What does the Earth ask of us in return?’”
Based on the tradition of her tribe, the Potawatomi, she proposes returning gratitude to the earth in return for its gifts.

Selected for participation in art symposium „Nähe und Distanz“
Place: Leonding
Date: September 2022

Medium: found objects, old clothes, willow sticks
Technique: participative installation