Category Archives: Art Work

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All Things Bright – June 10th

 On Thursday the exhibition “All things Bright- The Beauty of Biodiversity ” a global sustainable Art Initiative was held in the Shangrila Hotel hosted by Golden Bee.  It ran parallel to the International CSR symposium.

Foggy Dew – Wukou Si  Sucrose Series  mixed media 100x50cm Niamh Cunningham 瑞莲2020 

The Sucrose Series is a mixed media series which focusses on carefully selected nature photographic images which are then subjected to various ‘interventions” . These interventions represent the manmade interventions we have imposed on our planet since the industrial revolution. Following a process of multiple steps of intervention including sewing and printing on cotton, the ink is partially lifted from the surface into the sugar mixture, often Chinese water-colour is added, these pigments move in a state of flux as the sugar mixture crystalizes and so the painting continues its process in the following months and even years. The Sucrose Series involves not just the original artwork but many process images which document the changes  that has occur over many months or even years . Some of these  images from the different stages during the transformative crystalisation process reveal interesting happenings that also reflect the positive and negative feedbacks which happen to our biosphere . It is this complex network of events which are difficult to  isolate and attribute as direct consequence of a single action. This  artwork  has  been  shown  on  my  blog  a collection of tree stories  called  “Memory  Palace of  Trees ” in 2020 . This is a socio eco practice where the public is invited  to share tree stories. This year  tree stories are submitted  in the format of one minute videos.

Willow Ice,   process print Sucrose Series UV print on Aluminium composite, 120×160 cm Niamh Cunningham 2020 

with some of the participating artists including WangHainan 王海南，Jing Yumin 景于民， Gu Liming 顾黎明，myself,瑞莲 Michael St Amand , Zhang Meng 张锰，Mr Zhuang (CEO) 庄先生，Liu Yue 刘悦

 

A sincere thank you to Mr Zhuang of Golden Bee , a global sustainable art initiative , also to Liu Yue and ShiYan  and those further afield 

 

 

 

 

 

 

List of Participating Artists  

景育民 Jingyumin

王小杰 WangXiaojie

刘悦 Liuyue

郑靖 Zheng Jing 

张锰 Zhang Meng

艾娜。莱姆 Anna Laimu

张帆 Zhangfan

米卡。库恩

Niko de la Faye

周是麟 Zhoushilin

郑岱 Zheng Dai 

顾黎明 Gu Liming 

何杉 HeShan 

Niamh Cunningham  瑞莲

CROW 

吕智张 Lv ZhiZhang

王海南 Wang hai nan 

于扬 Yu Yang

韦冬 Wei Dong

Munkh Erdene

Michael St Amand 

李超 Li Chao 

Urlike Arnold 

Victor van Keuren 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Second Step- portraits have a Summer in Hou Hai

The Second Step is a collection of eighteen of my portraits showing at JoyBeans Space in Jiu Longtou Hutong .  I am delighted to have the portraits reach new audiences in this hutong space  near the lakes of Hou Hai.  

 

There are  portraits downstairs and upstairs. 

 

Thank you to those who came to our little gathering on Sunday June 6th  . A big thank you to curator Jacopo Della Ragione for putting it all together with panache and also to Will 陈宇威 one of the architects who runs the space. 

 

It was a great chance to meet old friends and meet new ones too. 

 

Special thanks to Ambassador Anne Derwin and her husband Joe for dropping by during their busy schedule, the Ambassador asked questions about every portrait!  

 

 

 

 

 

The coffee space is nearby the Prince Gong Mansions  and other interesting residences. It is nearby the area I used to train on the lakes and so I am also hoping my old buddies from Dragon Boat training will pop by .  

The work is showing until August 8th  . 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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WaterCity showing at Kun Art Museum , Solana

瑞莲，汇源水城 布面油画 2017 100厘米x300厘米 Niamh Cunningham, Water City Huiyuan oil on canvas 2017 100x 300cm

 

Astro World – Exit Plan opened Saturday at Kun Art Museum , Solana Mall last Saturday June 5th . This diverse exhibition was curated by artist Curator Doug Lewis whom I have known a number of years. He has been a teacher at the Canadian International School for a number of years and this event is his swan song as he and his artist partner Jean Klimack return to Canada after fourteen years of working in China . I have met them over the years at exhibitions in Caochangdi and 798  and at one or two of Lewis’s other exhibitions he curated over the years.

I was also delighted to be exhibiting with  a couple of artists I have known for years and new friends too. The Exhibition included some graduates and alumni from the Canadian International School 

With Lei Chakman’s work with Chakman and Martin Werhmer 

With Zhang Zhaohui 

With Stephen Gleadlow 

 

 

Astro World continues till the 27th of June 

Participating Artists include 

Kai Wen Fei

Jean Klimack

Dani Greene

Douglas Lewis

Martin Wehmer

Matt Hope

Xi Wang

David Lane

Li Gang

LuLu Li

Zhang Zhaohui

Niamh Cunningham,

Lei Chak Man

Divina Yue

Brandon Yuan

Eileen Li

Anna Yang

Martyna Pekela

Rosemary Shen

 

 

Astro Music : Some of the artists are musicians  and performed during the opening including Li Gang ( not pictured here ) and Doug Lewis (double  bass)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Pattern that Connects

What an unusual opportunity to be able to show work at this time. ‘The Pattern that Connects ‘ is a duo exhibition with woodcut artist Ma Liangfen from Cangzhou academy of Painting , Hebei. The exhibition opened (26/9/2020) at Dong Yue Art Musuem in Chaoyangmenwai . 

 

 

Thank you to Therese Healy , acting head of Mission at the Embassy of Ireland who spoke at the opening . Also to Wang YueZhou from Cangzhou Federation of Literary and Art Circles. Media figure Ms Chen Bing gracefully presented as Master of Ceremony . Thank you also to academic curator  Zeng Luhong  for his exhibition essay and media coverage and special gratitude to fellow artist Ma Liangfen whom I really enjoyed getting to know and learn from over the past two weeks. A big thank you to Yuan QiuLai director of Dong Yue Art Musuem with whom we had numerous cross cultural exhibitions over the past six years. The exhibition focusses on Nature , explores the human relationship with Nature and also examines  aspects of the ecological emergency . 

In January 2020 I began collecting written submissions on any aspect of trees for my blog “The Memory Palace of Trees” gathering stories from poets, childrens writers, dendrologists and other people across the globe. This socio-eco practice highlights the interdependence between trees and people and explores the place it might take us. 

Here are some artworks from earlier stories in the year. 

Forrester Anna Finke’s interesting passion for climbing trees

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Environmental educator Carrissa Welton’s story “Roots of Recovery” linked to the Ginkgo Sucrose work

Barrow Trance 

The story for ‘Trees can Communicate’ was linked to artwork on Barrow river reflections.


Joshua’s tree the Hawthorne with the painting Piyos view

WU Yiqiangs 吴以强 story of artists replanting the Swan Goose Forest

Mayfield 4am 凌晨4点 80 x 60cm Niamh Cunningham 倪芙瑞莲2014

‘The tree in your Backyard Yard’ story is matched with Mayfield 4am.

When taking some visitors yesterday on a tour of the exhibition we were talking about shared DNA , how we share 25% of our DNA with trees, Shared DNA of all lifeforms on earth are also part of the pattern that connects. 

北京公共汽车站Beijing-Bus-Stop-132x-90-cm-oil-on-canvas Niamh-Cunningham倪芙瑞莲 2014

 

The funny poem by Pat Ingoldsby thinking about a wooden telegraph pole next to a bus stop match with painting Beijing Bus Stop

 

New developments on the sucrose series have extended to selected  UV prints on aluminium  . I have also shown some original sucroses which are not immediately  easy  to identify with the earlier process stages.  This work visualizes the transformations that occur during crystalisation as a metaphor for the ever present ecological metamorphosis. 

Sucroses in the original form

Tree Song Jinan, sucrose series, UV print on Aluminium 200x 100cm Niamh Cunningham 2020

 

There are also some figures from my  2019  Portrait series most of these have never been exhibited before. 

 

There are also some figures from my  2019  Portrait series. 

Here is a link to view more details on the portrait project . 

Ma Liangfen 马良分

 

Ma Liangfen’s expansive collection of woodcut boards cover journeys of the natural world across China. There are a number of prints on paper including some reverse colour prints where only one board was used . I asked her about her affinity to cats and she told me had no cat at home but loved observing the independence of the wild cats exploring at leisure. Other works explore unexpected thoughts and fantasies creating new worlds within the realm of reality . 

 

 

 

Here are more in depth links to her work 

Ma Liangfen link 1 

Ma Liangfen link 2 

 

Exhibition Media Doc link 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Resilience Thinking – building a safe living space for humanity

 

TreeSong Jinan,  sucrose Series,  (3.7.3.b) Niamh Cunningham 瑞连 2020

Resilience is the capacity to be able to deal with change, to live with change, to make use of change , not just incremental change but also sudden shocks and crises and develop the ability to turn those crises into opportunities.

When we acknowledge we are in the driving seat of change and defining the conditions for world development, this profoundly shifts our potential in terms of our social well being , development and economic growth. And so we are able to look at the Anthropocene directly in the eye and deal with it in a more manageable way.

Having completed the Planetary Boundaries on line course presented by the SDG academy (all of the lecturers are from the Resilience Centre in Stockholm.) I wanted to mull over some of the things I have been thinking about.

The nine boundaries begin with the three main large scale processes : climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion and ocean acidification. Slow variables are biodiversity loss, interference with nitrogen and phosphorous cycles, changes in land use and fresh water use. The last two are heavily human induced chemical pollution and aerosol loading.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I discovered more about positive and negative feedbacks , regime changes , tipping points and to a more limited extent the interactions between boundaries.The main presenter Johan Rockström raises the chilling concept of the Quadruple Squeeze . These include Affluence and Population, the second is Climate Change crisis , the third is the Loss of our Ecosystems ability to buffer the changes (such as carbon buffers in seas) and the fourth is Surprise leading to tipping points where there is an ‘abrupt knock out’ after a period of resilience.

 

There is no doubt that we are facing the largest and fastest transformation in the history of humanity . We are the first generation to witness the changes directly and the last generation to have the capacity to exert meaningful change to these biospherical processes. 

 

Even though delivery of the talks are brief and persuasive it makes it easier to absorb the weight of the content.  One of the lecturers Gary Peterson whom I view as an eco philosopher spoke on resilience thinking. He explained the use of optimisation can only be used when the variables are known and when things are under control.

Resilience Thinking , Niamh Cunningham 2020

 

In order to act collectively there needs to be shared ability and shared trust. We need social, technical and institutional ways to enable new understandings which cope with uncertainty and the evolution of new things. Ways in supporting the Biosphere underpins our wealth and our wellbeing

However simply increasing resilience is not the issue, we also need to consider where resilience is harmful. Understanding circumstances when  increasing resilience in one thing can decrease resilience in something else. We need to understand what creates , destroys and trades off these things and also not focus simply on increasing resilience but what kind of resilience do we want to increase. For example the fossil fuel economy is amazingly resilient, we need to reflect how can we undermine the resilience of these things? 

 

 

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The course can be taken free of charge on EdX  platform

https://www.edx.org/

 

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August – The Hawthorne Tree

简体中文

I am delighted to receive Joshua’s story on a Hawthorne tree for the August tree story . 

Piyo’s view  acrylic on canvas 50 x 60 cm

 

A seven year-old named White Horse once found a tree painted on smooth stone by a cave on a mountain called Rooster Crown in Changping. Urban legend claims that a hundred years ago Taoists attained immortality up there. White Horse used this round boon for a special gravestone .

 

Our dog had died and we planted her beneath the Hawthorne tree in our courtyard. She was a tri-coloured collie abandoned by her owner in an empty yard next to ours. One day I got locked out, scaled the red brick wall through vines of ivy and there she was laying among rubbish, sheepishly peering up at me.

 

I took her in and our luck increased. Maybe. At least that’s what our Lithuanian friend said. She said that Laima ,a Baltic goddess of fate, bestows good luck to people  who take in stray-dogs. White Horse wanted to name our new dog Pirate or Yoghurt soon settling on both – Piyo. Piyo was clearly already old and one day I left chocolate bonbons out. She ate them and died.

 

The Chinese grandma in our family questioned whether or not it was ok to bury Piyo in our courtyard like that right beneath this Hawthorne tree. Maybe grandma was just being a proper, superstitious Maoist, but I didn’t know and superstitions do cling to location. So to be safe I turned one of my monk shawls into a dog shroud thinking that’d make everything holy.

 

Last Autumn the mother of White Horse brought a woven platter full of Hawthorns from our tree to her father in Tonghzhou. He was an old-Beijinger and mashed the fruits into jam which we spread on toasted slices of imported bread. About a half-year later (early spring 2020) this elderly gentleman (key family member) had passed away too. Not from the virus though as timing might suggest.

 

The funeral took place a day after heavy restrictions on gathering were lifted. We first gathered at the crematorium and then the family graveyard at the centre of Songzhuang art district. This Chinese funeral was amazing.  Both the unabashed wailing of his childhood friend over open casket and steel-like delivery of the officiant pressed my curiosity as a WASP from New England. Those of us with Puritan roots are accustomed to not showing our emotions and at having someone who admires God to lead our significant ceremonies in life and death. I was given the honour of carrying the portrait of White Horse’s grandfather while his daughter held his urn.

 

Not long afterwards it was first-half of May and the Hawthorne tree in our yard was bowing under rich weight of puffy, nectar-soaked blossoms. They proved themselves gloriously white and worth getting licked by pollen buzzing bees. These Hawthorn flowers screamed out to the surrounding landscape, “Remember me because of how utterly bright I am. And this will help you understand that later in the year when I grow fruits, when I offer life, you can return to me and get nourishment.”

 

The Hawthorne is shady refuge for the departed lady of luck Piyo. It is splashing energy through wicked springtime colour. It is fuel for honey. Our tree gives tart, tangy fruit-taste that has a mild sweetness. Medically it is known as a remedy for heart failure. If only I had been more sensitive to this essential detail sooner, I might have been able to support my best friend a bit better who died of a heart attack in December. This tree serves perfectly for the wheel of life. Its generous limbs circling about, the lilting gaze of the tree soaks through my heart. As for a hermit what could be better source for the fruits of beauty and truth than a magnificent Hawthorne. Stable, steady and pure. Resting outside my window we follow the changing seasons of luck.

 

Joshua is a painter and aspiring writer living in Shangyuan art village on the outskirts of Peking.

Link on the author 

 

White Horse and Joshua with the Hawthorne tree in the background

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Memory Palace of Trees 2020 is an ecological art practice which invites your participation to tell a story (or give some kind of information) about trees. It is a social enquiry of how to live better with the planet and with people by simply sharing stories. You are cordially invited to tell me your story of a tree or trees. (email : niamh@niamhcunningham.com) I would love to hear from you. Throughout 2020 a story will be posted with either an artwork already made or perhaps your story will inspire me to make a new work!

 

 

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July – Emoji Trees

Early Evening Yunnan oil on canvas 2014 50 x 150 cm Niamh Cunningham 2014

简体中文

Very grateful to Sofia Ballon for this month’s tree story of a strange tree that seemed to be reappearing on her travels in Peru.

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In 2015 I went on a trip to the north-central jungle of Peru with four friends.  The trip took us beyond Tarapoto where our plane from Lima had landed. We were destined to go through Gocta which has one of the highest waterfalls in the world. From there to Moyobamba a place renowned for its orchids and finally reaching the cloud forests of the southern Amazonas  Chachapoyas harboring ancient vestiges of the precolumbian culture of the same name. 

 

All the days spent with my friends were lovely, but it was the initial eight hour drive between Tarapoto and Chachapoyas, when I felt the closest to trees. 

 

As soon as we rolled onto the main road, I was surprised to see in real life and lining our travels, the same tree available as an emoji in whatsapp. Emoji design has evolved considerably since, but other than the christmas tree, I believe this was the only other tree in stock then. It was quite recognisable, circular leaves forming an elongated treetop over a slender light brown trunk. Literally, leaf by leaf, these same trees were swooshing in real life outside my window.

I immediately shared a snapchat video of the trees using the emoji. That has been lost since, but the vivid image in my mind and the sounds of my friends’ laughter at the coincidence, stay with me still. 

 

Before our evening arrival at Chachapoyas, we spent over three hours in Cocachimba, walking all the way to the bottom of the Gocta waterfall under the rain, in a damp and dark forest of ferns,  knobby-trunked trees, and vegetation-covered stone faces. The local birds cheered us on from their hiding spots in the canopy.

 

The five day affair ended back in Tarapoto, staying at a property that protects a part of the city’s forest. We have cute photos hugging enormous trees and memories of a final day well spent refreshing under their shade while dipping in the river. I have returned once more to the region, and again drove on that main road lined with “el arbolito de whatsapp”. The emojis might change and appear differently on other devices, but those trees will be safekept as such in my heart.

Sofia Ballon in Peru 

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Memory Palace of Trees 2020 is an ecological art practice which invites your participation to tell a story (or give some kind of information) about trees. It is a social enquiry of how to live better with the planet and with people by simply sharing stories. You are cordially invited to tell me your story of a tree or trees. (email : niamh@niamhcunningham.com) I would love to hear from you. Throughout 2020 a story will be posted with either an artwork already made or perhaps your story will inspire me to make a new work!

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Sucrose Series -currently showing at Wuxi Bund Art Centre

Pond Poplars   池边白杨11.02.20 sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020

I am very pleased to be exhibiting some of my work in a physical space for the first time in the year 2020. Silent Explosion opened it’s doors  last week  at the impressive venue Wuxi Bund art Centre.

My work showing at this group exhibition is a digital work, a video showing the stages of transition of four Sucrose works in mid transformation:

We are deeply rooted in the ways we see our reality. When you observe ‘process’ you see constant change and consider the flux of relationships that intermingle to make up our systems. When we don’t see the delicate tendencies within an ecosystem which gives it its integrity there is a problem.  

Spiked Stardust   星芒  18.03.20  Niamh Cunningham 2020

Transformation and Nature are recurring themes in my work. Transformation has an essential role in life and I have been exploring this through materiality and process of art making. For several years I have been looking at the monocrystal sugar and its interaction with paper and ink and other materials.

 

 

 

I explore this process of crystalisation in the painting process where minute ink particles pulled from the under layer of digital print are lifted into the mixture which later forms crystals. Occasionally you can see the movement of ink as the crystalisation takes place. Therefore the painting process continues without further interventions. There are two things of interest that are taking place here. At the early process stage, near the surface of the cotton paper there is a slight movement of tiny ink particles which are lifted into the sugar mixture. But this is minute in scope. The more obvious surface crystallization spreads its delicate web obscuring the image some might call this a painting in reverse.

Cotton Catkins Flying    飞絮濛濛. 15.02.20 Niamh Cunningham 2020

The dense and often disorienting landscape  of the Chinese garden has fascinated me for a long time. For these sacred gardens scholars borrowed geometrical order from Confucianism, the search for the elixir of life in Taoism (which is more in touch with natural world than the artificialities and etiquette of Confucianism)  and the garden as an aid to meditation as in Buddhism. These cosmic diagrams reveal an ancient view of man’s perspective of the natural world.

My idle Dreams roam far    闲梦远 12.02.20 Niamh Cunningham 2020

I have chosen garden sucroses, ‘Pond Poplars’, ‘Spiked Stardust ‘and ‘My Idle Dreams roam far’ which are based on my favourite Chinese garden Yu Yuan in Shanghai. The title for “Cotton Catkins Flying’ is taken from a poem by Li Yu who wrote about the West Lake in Hangzhou from where the underlying image is taken.

 

Taken from exhibition text

 

Silence is an illusion

Spring has passed through in silence

Nature is flattered by man’s inertia

 

沉默是假象

沉默了一整个春

人类的静止让大自然受宠若惊

Silent Explosion is an exhibition curated by Jiang Danming.

Art director :  Ma Yiying

Academic host: Tong YongSheng

Video Media : Wang Yanning 王彦宁

Participating artists include:

Chen Hao, Liu Jincai, Liu Lang, Li Jintao, Niamh Cunningham Ruilian (Ireland) ), Wang Jianrong, Wei Ying, Zhang Xuebo, Zhang Ziyi, Zhu Jiancheng, Zhu Zhigang.

 

A personal thanks to Ma Yiying and Zhuzhigang and Jiang Danming .

 

Link to the exhibition  Silent Explosion 

 

The Exhibition “Silent Explosion” at Wuxi Canal Bund Art Centre  continues till July 31st 2020

 

 

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Taking on the Overwhelm – Ecoliteracy in the Arts

 

Purls from the Undercut  GIF   sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“What is the pattern that connects?”

Exploring the cultural dimensions of sustainability is a vast subject. Recently have I been introduced to the work of systems thinker the late Gregory Bateson.  Learning about “the pattern that connects” was his life’s work. He was preoccupied with why humans frequently behave in ways that are destructive of natural ecological systems. He asked questions of holistic structures such as how does it work? what works with it? what are the relationships? how does it learn? how does it think? how does it interact? In the documentary produced by his daughter Nora Bateson “An Ecology of Mind” we see how Bateson liked to look at a thing from different angles, twist it around endlessly so as not to get stuck on a singular line of thinking. If we don’t search for this pattern that connects, in our global culture, in our educational institutions, we are likely to break it and when that happens Bateson said “you necessarily destroy all quality.”

 

“The planetary emergency we are facing is a crisis of culture” said Dr Cathy Fitzgerald who presented the online course ‘Essential ecoliteracy for creatives and art professionals’.   I first met artist -researcher Cathy twelve years ago in my home town of Carlow, Ireland. Her course is packed with valuable resources, video links and readings.  Fellow artists, educators and policy makers from all over the globe met on the weekly zoom meeting ,  using the material for that week we explored ecological insights that promote paradigm shifts.  The rest of this blog will touch on only a few highlights from this course.

 

Purls from the Undercut (16.7.5.a) sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020

At the beginning of the course Cathy took us through some terms such as

 

The Holocene : Since the last ice age 12000 years ago the earth has experienced only small scale climate shifts.  However we have drifted from the Holocene since the Industrial revolution and are now currently in the Anthropocene.

The Anthropocene : Our current era  is where humans dominate climatic, biophysical and evolutional processes at a planetary scale.    

The Symbiocene : This term was  coined by Glen Albrecht which hints at more symbiotic relationship,  where  life thrives through interrelated mutuality between many species and we can affirm the interconnectedness of life and all living things. Albrecht also said that he saw art as a meme for the Symbiocene.

Glen Albrecht is author of the book Earth Emotions where he defines other words for our new world such as solastalgia, soliphilia, (Please see link at end of this blog for more )

 

To support people on the enormity of the work ahead one of the modules included psycho-, social and physical supports and practices. Every module had a ‘mind-body coherence’ session, a physical and mental exercise with Veronica Larrson. I also learned unexpected things like why ‘compassion’ was far more important to practice than ‘empathy’ from eco philosopher Dr. Nikos Patedakis.

 

As part of the copious resources, links and readings which were packed into each weekly module I encountered environmental activist, scholar of Buddhism, general systems theory and deep ecology author Joanna Macy.

‘That knife edge of uncertainty illicits from us our greatest creativity and courage, we need to live with sufficient realism and dignity to know that we are living with that knife edge of uncertainty.’

Putting our interconnectedness, our courage and intelligence to good use she speaks of the shift of an industrial growth society to a more sustainable civilization. That knife edge of uncertainty feels all the sharper now as we work our way through the Covid 19 era.

Purls from the Undercut (16.6.30.a) sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020

We also studied the UNSDG’s Sustainable Development Goals. (This module propelled me onto another online course called “Planetary Boundaries” for which I am currently learning. I hope to write an overview blog on that experience later.)  I came across an interview with Scientist Susanne Moser who also presented a positive picture for these overwhelming times and claimed one good reason to get out of bed in the morning is that we haven’t tried everything yet. “Having done miserably at communication, having done miserably at policy, having done miserably at market responses to climate change, this gives us a ton of hope because we could do so much better’ (earthisland.org)

 

 

The week we looked at Expanded Earth Ethics we considered the work of the late Scottish barrister  Polly Higgins. Ecocide is the missing piece of law to assist in reframing a system to avoid business as usual. Higgins is author of the book Dare to be Great. The term Ecocide is likely to have first appeared at the time of the American war in Vietnam. Cathy took us through some of the ideas behind the book Moral Ground edited by Kathleen Dean Moore.  We then looked at the Earth Charter. Systems thinker Fritjof Capra described it as a declaration of 16 values and principles to create a sustainable, just and peaceful world.

We then explored how others expanded their ecological art practices such as Newton Harrisons’ ten minute video Apologia Mediteranneo an evocative apology to the largest inland sea. On our final week participants presented our own socio eco practices to the group, learning a little bit more of the people who had been raising questions during the previous weekly sessions. After two weeks I am still reviewing many of the readings and links on the course referencing the renowned and also the less known movers and shakers in the world of ecological thinking and eco-social art practices.  

 

 

I would highly recommend this online course for artists and creatives and policy makers who wish to inform their practices / educational programs and policies.  

 

Here is a link to Dr Cathy Fitzgerald courses site

https://courses.haumea.ie/pages/coming_soon

 

This is a blog by Dr Fitzgerald expanding  on some of the topics above 

https://hollywoodforest.com/2019/05/10/good-bye-anthropocene-hello-symbiocene/#content-wrapper

 

Purls from the Undercut (16.7.5.a) sucrose series Niamh Cunningham 2020

 

The artwork for this blog is part of the sucrose series. The image is based on a waterfall outside Shawan, Sichuan, when visiting with other artists working on the early stages of a sculpture project in ‘Hong Fangzi’ October 2019. 

 

 

Note  my practice “Memory Palace of Trees” continues with upcoming tree story about Su Dong Po’s family residence in Meishan.