What is it all for?
Walking into a greener future
Before all this began, a phrase came to me: the climate fight is multidisciplinary. Being straight out of university, on the graduate conveyor belt (for me, that at least meant the public sector, rather than a job at one of four firms in the City), I was utterly lost as to what my discipline could be. I felt exceptional in nothing, and being an activist felt to be an impossibility. I had grown up uncurious and complacent, accepting and uninformed about the politics and debate that raged around me.
But, poem by poem, I became a writer. As I became a writer, I became an artist. As I became an ecological writer, the content of my work being ghostly, in that I am writing of non-existent things, or things that could soon collapse.
And so I became an activist, and in finding my discipline, I found my contribution.
Like many, I went into university seeking cold, hard study, changing from a Literature degree, to a Maths degree, because what is the point of studying art and of doing art, in this economy? Or so it is easy to think. And that is the myth, the legend, the lie of the 21st century, that we gathered to address in a cobwebbed and storied studio space, to dream green on the autumnal equinox.
What is the role of the artist in dreaming a greener future?
This event, as many are, was a joyful excuse, to bring our philosophies to life. Working with Nature Over Natter, an artistic and influencing duo with a social platform focusing on the role of nature in addressing today’s mental health and loneliness pandemic, we dreamed up an agenda that allowed our ideas to breathe, and others to breathe with them.
Skai Campbell introducing the warm-up exercise: self-portraiture and visions for the future.
Gifted his family home as a venue space by Roc, who I met, characteristically, on his family’s island in the Hebrides, we opened the doors of Ambergris to a chatter of young creatives, all working in and around themes of climate and nature. We invited them to spend a day with their own creativity, and with each other, to explore for themselves how they wanted to respond to the central challenge, of what is the artist to do about the world we find ourselves in.
A flock of poets following Jess through West London, in search of nature-based inspiration.
The artist envisions. The artist disrupts, they inspire. Communicates, the artist reflects themselves on a page, for someone to find something to relate to. The artist bears witness. The artist creates a space for people to reflect, for people to come together. The artist conspires and collaborates. The artist empowers, the artist makes a different future possible.
But the artist needs many things to play this role. The artist needs time, needs space. Needs company, encouragement, and inspiration. And we, the team behind the event, are listening, and planning…
…for what could come next.
From left to right, back row: Lou, Tara, Tammie, Roc and front row: Alicia, Jess.
Acknowledgements
With huge praise to Lou Moore and Tammie Esslemont, co-founders of Nature Over Natter (@natureovernatter), and co-curators of Dream Green, with myself, Tara Brown.
And with tremendous thanks to our facilitators for the day:
Skai Campbell, Illustrator, @skhoshbell (warm up sketch session)
Alicia Hayden, Wildlife Artist, @aliciahaydenwildlife (artivism workshop, discussion facilitator)
Jess Grynfeld, Poet, @jessgpoetry (eco poetry workshop, discussion facilitator)
Roc Sandford, Writer & Activist, @rocsandford (venue space, discussion facilitator)