Rituals of Regeneration
A Festival to Celebrate Nature, Women & their Empowering Connection.The Festival encompasses the Exhibition Utopia, inspired by the ECOFeminism movement that started in the 70’s exploring the relation between nature and women, through the work of 75 artists working across multiple disciplines. The Exhibition is accompanied by an extensive Programme of Events including, workshops and performances.The Festival also presents a Short Film Festival at the famed Genesis Cinema, and a Conference at the Ecology Pavilion!
Installation Uta Tiggesmeier Atelier
I conceived this installation during the first lockdown in March 2020, when I started a daily drawing ritual. Line after repeated line I dissolved’ into a state of gratefulness and devotion. The “tower” drawing is inspired by a Japanese Gorinto or stupa, a monument composed of stacked geometric forms that represent the elements of nature, earth, water, fire, air and space. The stupa embodies the interconnectedness of all creation in tangible form.
The earth element is represented again in the clay vessel which forms the second part of the installation. It carries motifs of the fertility myths, and honours the goddess of life, death and regeneration. Do you recognise the snake dividing the plate in the middle, splitting the cells and originating new growth?
In the third installation, I have drawn around the upturned clay vessel to create a circle. This is the earth as ‘Gaia' and the soil it holds nurtures what it gives to and takes from us. It is inspired by the story of Leah Penniman, an American activist and author of the book “Farming while black”. Leah is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system and is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of colour, to restore Afro-indigenous farming practices and end food apartheid.
When exhausted by her lobby activism Leah walks out into her fields, digs a hole and cries her anger into the soil and walks away. With this ritual, she leaves it to Mother Earth, the ultimate ‘composter' to transform anger and fear into hope and strength.
Leah went back to see her “grandmothers” in Ghana, who had taught her how to farm land. They told her “It is no wonder that your society is so sick, you treat Mother Earth like a commodity and not like a relative!”; they then took a handful of coffee and a cup of Rum and offered this to the soil before harvesting some crops.
Reflecting on our daily rituals, what empowers and elevates us? Can we create objects of solace to anchor our souls?
Would you like to try out Leah’s ritual?
Installation Uta Tiggesmeier Atelier
I conceived this installation during the first lockdown in March 2020, when I started a daily drawing ritual. Line after repeated line I dissolved’ into a state of gratefulness and devotion. The “tower” drawing is inspired by a Japanese Gorinto or stupa, a monument composed of stacked geometric forms that represent the elements of nature, earth, water, fire, air and space. The stupa embodies the interconnectedness of all creation in tangible form.
The earth element is represented again in the clay vessel which forms the second part of the installation. It carries motifs of the fertility myths, and honours the goddess of life, death and regeneration. Do you recognise the snake dividing the plate in the middle, splitting the cells and originating new growth?
In the third installation, I have drawn around the upturned clay vessel to create a circle. This is the earth as ‘Gaia' and the soil it holds nurtures what it gives to and takes from us. It is inspired by the story of Leah Penniman, an American activist and author of the book “Farming while black”. Leah is committed to ending racism and injustice in our food system and is part of a global network of farmers working to increase farmland stewardship by people of colour, to restore Afro-indigenous farming practices and end food apartheid.
When exhausted by her lobby activism Leah walks out into her fields, digs a hole and cries her anger into the soil and walks away. With this ritual, she leaves it to Mother Earth, the ultimate ‘composter' to transform anger and fear into hope and strength.
Leah went back to see her “grandmothers” in Ghana, who had taught her how to farm land. They told her “It is no wonder that your society is so sick, you treat Mother Earth like a commodity and not like a relative!”; they then took a handful of coffee and a cup of Rum and offered this to the soil before harvesting some crops.
Reflecting on our daily rituals, what empowers and elevates us? Can we create objects of solace to anchor our souls?
Would you like to try out Leah’s ritual?
- Step towards the circle - one at a time.
- Lower yourself down, placing your knees and hands in the indicated spots.
- Take the trowel and dig a hole.
- Lean over the soil, pause and breathe deeply.
- Exhale all your emotions into the hole - let it all out.
- Take the branch and rake the soil back over the hole.
- Use the sweeper to brush the soil back into the middle and leave the circle sacred for your sisters and brothers.
