A lot of the questions I receive and embroider have personal pronouns. They wonder how you, I, we, human beings, should go about our lives. Today’s question takes the viewpoint of anything on this planet, maybe even beyond it. What does it take to survive? It is inspired by the Smooth Handfish, “a sea dweller with bulging eyes, a distinctive fin on its head, and hand-like fins that allowed it to walk on the seabed – … once so plentiful in the Tasman region, it was one of the first fish species to be documented in ‘Australia’."
In July last year the Smooth Handfish was declared extinct. Remembrance Day for Lost Species writes:
“What is known of its collective story – within the limits of human cognition of its existence and loss – feels so relevant to where we find ourselves today.
For many people, the last two years in particular, have given multiple pauses to rethink the question, ‘What does it take to survive?’
These are difficult times in the midst of multiple crises, with profound losses occurring each day. The frantic pace of the world and the type of systems that much of humankind are expected to navigate, has meant that over the years many important personal and communal rituals have been misplaced or usurped. Spaces for meaningful philosophical discourse have been lost - as well as spaces for connection with living companions – human, non-human, across earth, ocean, freshwater, ice…
To reckon with this, The Parallel Effect – a collective of creators and thinkers – have curated a Vigil for the Smooth Handfish. Our intention is to provide a space for congregation, to contemplate loss, grief, the parameters of care, the interconnectedness of conservation and radical hope, and “collaborative survival”.
No comments:
Post a Comment