Everything becomes possible, first in our imagination
Metanoia
Metanoia is the title of a 40+ piece collage, composed of hand-cut and digital elements, and the name of a city built atop a mountain crest. The citizens honor the once-forgotten Tyche, the Greek goddess of fortune and chance. Once worshiped in Athens in times of social and political uncertainty, the goddess experienced a renaissance amidst rapid ecological unrest. Ever since, the now-rewilded myths associated with her continue to be retold. They have found deep, lasting resonance across generations and provide guidance during the dark nights of unknown futures.
Every summer solstice, a mirror image of the Earth appears in the sky. On this day, citizens ascend the central stairwell to drink from the sacred fountain, replenished by the waterfall that springs from the eyes of Tyche. Everyone gathers to grieve all earthly lives lost — both human and more-than-human, and celebrate the magnificence of our animate cosmos. Humans and butterflies alike dance in a waning sky, drunk on an awe-inspiring spectacle that, for some, lasts an evening, but for those awake, attuned, and in service to the breathing world, lasts a lifetime.
“In a reimagined notion of the sanctuary, the ‘monster’ plays a major role. The monster is an agent of reconfiguration and a critique of form; it disturbs the familiar and reshapes the bodies we are used to. It resists categorization in its corporeal excessiveness. The monster welcomes the fugitive, the broken, into sanctuary; the place becomes a site for bodily reconfigurations. For re/memberment.”
— Bayo Akomolafe, Coming Down To Earth
Emerging Ambiguity
After forest fires, the first organisms to re-emerge from the black ashes are fungi. Particularly pyrophilous fungi — fire (pyro) loving (philous), are the first living beings to grow in the remnants of deceased woods. Fungi, in that sense, are embodiments of hope and resilience. They stay with and withstand the heat of the moment.
These times of ecological collapse call on us to embody and shapeshift into fungi. To bear witness to the cracks in our social fabric, and not shy away from them. To spread widely the mycelial connective tissue that weaves us into felt relationship with life, and expands our field of sensuous awareness of our ecological reality.
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In crises, we often revert to tried-and-tested solutions. In the rut of urgency, we respond in ways that seemed to work in the past. We try to cover up the crack, just so we can re-cover quickly and go back to normal. But in the midst of rapid ecological change and biodiversity loss, what does normal mean? And is the familiar destination of normality truly something to seek out? What if there’s something else we long for — a deeper need — that cannot be met with habitual ways of perceiving and doing? Oftentimes, the way we make sense of the crisis is the crisis.
“In the gathering dusk this other fog collects in white streamers and clouds over the fields. It is almost as if a vaporous white wood suddenly stands suspended over the grass. All outlines are blurred; the interim kingdom becomes visible in a presence that is neither object nor light nor darkness. The ancient name still lingers. It is called an ceo draíochta: the fairy fog.”
— John O’Donohue, Eternal Echoes
Divine Integration
“Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.”
— Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow
Liminality
Navigating the space between stories puts us up for an immense challenge. We must seek the others to find hope and support when that which we love falls away, rediscover how to grieve for what we lose and praise what is lost, and learn how to remain alive in the face of death. To not resist being wholly taken by awe at the birth of spring, for somehow we know that all is at stake. The liminal space between stories offers the possibility to reclaim our freedom; sense deeper into the future that wants to be born; and start threading a different story of the world we want to live by.
Limbo, 2021
Digital collage
Aliveness, 2022
Hand-cut collage
Desire to Understand, 2021
Digital collage
Postcards from the Universe
Nostalgia of a time not yet lived
hand-cut collage series
Listening Mountain
The ancient mountain does not speak
It only listens
The ancient mountain does not demand obedience
It only calls forth
The awakened traveller
Fishing Dark Material
The Last Glimpse
Catching Astronauts
Transcendental
(client commission)Sympoiesis
Sympoiesis is the experience and design lab I co-founded with my partner. We are on a mission to develop our collective response-ability to metabolize loss and regenerate living systems. The collage represents a vision for regenerative communications, and the thriving futures it can make possible. Animated by Neirin Best.
(client commission)Perspectivist
Perspectivist is the regenerative agency. I created a multi-layered collage, tapping into the organization’s unique essence and brand voice, reflecting the magic of listening to and weaving diverse perspectives.
(client commission)Masawa Fund
Since mental wellness is a subjective experience, what we associate with a flourishing state of being is also deeply personal. I tried to portray this inherent diversity in subjective experience through diversity in the identities and facial expressions of the models, as well as through the choice of visual elements.
To truly be alive, we must tend to our wellbeing the way we would tend to a garden: take out weeds, prune parts that no longer serve the whole, and direct our love and attention to those aspects of ourselves we wish to grow and develop. Wellbeing like gardening, however, is a communal effort, and we must recognize that health and wellbeing are co-created. They are systemic qualities that emerge through togetherness and compassion. And while sometimes the invisible structures of our society run deep underground, they exert a powerful influence on our ability to thrive — often unequally. More about the project on sympoiesis.world
(client commission)Perspectiva
Perspectiva aspires to enhance our collective perception of life’s possibilities and find ways to protect and revitalize our shared and only home.
For the launch of their online community and workshop “Temporics” which explored the concept and diverse experiences of time, I created a promotional poster design using digital collage. The design plays with the notion of time-traveling portals and ancestral and deep time, connecting us to our more-than-human ancestors across eons.
More collages and information about the project on sympoiesis.world
