Co-incidence # 2 in life: Brain Forest Quipu – at Tate Modern …

I wrote about the Quipu – an Andean recording device used extensively by the peoples of the Andes pre-colonisation … when I wrote about legs … and how far early peoples could run … the Andeans recording administrative details, including distance, on these quipus.

Quipu in the Museum of Machu Picchu

A Quipu is difficult to imagine … but # 2 is so relevant to our world today …

Cecilia Vicuña is a Chilean poet and artist … who through representation is noted for themes of language, memory, dissolution, extinction and exile … as well as the relevance of her work to the politics of ecological destruction, cultural homogenization, and economic disparity.

Cecilia Vicuña

She has an exhibition in the huge Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern … where her creativity has come to the fore …

Two Quipu work of arts hang 27 metres ( 90 feet!) in the Turbine Hall (gallery height 99 metres (235 feet) ) …

Courtesy of Ian Visits site

Vicuña suggests that we are at the beginning of new time, one where we must first become aware of our collective responsibility in order to change destructiveness, injustices and harm.

Working with some of the material

These two wonderful, very large hanging, artworks made from 'useful detritus and mudlarked objects' are entitled 'Dead Forest Quipu' …

The organic mudlarked items have been collected from the banks of the River Thames by women from local Latin American communities …

A sketch of a Quipucamayoc -
a chronicle of Inca history by
an indigenous early 
historian (c 1535 - 1616)

… then with unspun wool, plant fibres, rope and cardboard Vicuña has created these two skeletal forms … which draw attention to the severity of the delicate nature of our ecosystems, as well as the climate crisis.

There's a 'Sound Quipu' …. bringing together indigenous music from several regions, compositional silences, new pieces by Vicuña and like-minded artists, and field recordings from nature …

Also a 'Digital Quipu' … weaves together videos of indigenous activists and land defenders to amplify their calls for us to notice their struggles …

Please read this exhibition guide … it is so informative and valuable – I feel I cannot express it properly here …

Vicuña writes “the Earth is a brain forest, and the Quipu embraces all its interconnections” …

This is a thought provoking guide … I encourage you to read … also you will see more of her work and how they are set out in the Turbine Hall – separately, yet joined …

Then I move on to # 3 … which will be my next post … however re # 2 Quipu – I never expected to read about such an amazing exhibit in the Turbine Hall at the Tate Modern …

Mudlarking in Victorian times

Unfortunately I doubt I'll get up to London to see it … I'm rather avoiding going anywhere out of the Eastbourne area … being lazy, or sensible, or dubious about being amongst masses again …

We are so lucky having the internet to bring us articles of interest, and to have internet friends who enjoy seeing what subjects blogging/social media friends introduce us to …

I hope you appreciate the concept of the Dead Forest Quipu … here's the link to The Tate Modern - with a short 29 second YouTube introduction …

It is a new multi-media installation made up of sculpture, sound, music and video, which mourns the destruction of nature and the loss of indigenous history and culture.

Ian Visits - a website I visit ... from where I found out about this amazing exhibition ... 

Tate Modern site ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Vacillating ...

 

Vacillating seems an appropriate descriptive word for so many now … a return to what was - appears to be required, yet is unlikely (especially for us here in the UK) …

… though I feel the world has changed so much – and that will be impossible for present inhabitants to settle back into our old way of life … change is on the cards – which is not going away.

A lifetime is ahead … in other words twenty-five or so years … before a settled life will happen – many will continue on, many will struggle, some will forge new ways for themselves and others …

Barnack Hills and Hole Reserve
(John Clare used to live near here)

We'll adapt and life will progress, regardlesss …

John Clare's poem “I am … ” written when he had been declared mentally ill, as he was 'full of many strange delusions' …

… while being held in an asylum – he was encouraged to continue writing … where he 'developed a very distinctive voice an unmistakable intensity and vibrance, such as the later pictures of Vincent Van Gogh' …

John Clare (1793 - 1864)

Here is John Clare's poem …

I am—yet what I am none cares or knows;

My friends forsake me like a memory lost:

I am the self-consumer of my woes—

They rise and vanish in oblivious host,

Like shadows in love’s frenzied stifled throes

And yet I am, and live—like vapours tossed

Into the nothingness of scorn and noise,

Into the living sea of waking dreams,

Where there is neither sense of life or joys,

But the vast shipwreck of my life’s esteems;

Even the dearest that I loved the best

Are strange—nay, rather, stranger than the rest.

I long for scenes where man hath never trod

A place where woman never smiled or wept

There to abide with my Creator, God,

And sleep as I in childhood sweetly slept,

Untroubling and untroubled where I lie

The grass below—above the vaulted sky.

Durer's Rhinocerus ( Woodcut 1515)

Clare's work evokes a life which many will seem to be living now … but life really does come around again … continue on with life, do what we can, move on … we cannot change the world order (regrettably!) - but we can be at peace with ourselves wherever we're at …

I just need to get off my pity bad back bandwagon and move along … thankfully it doesn't stick around for long … I'm blessed and very fortunate in that way …

Right – that's me over my lethargy … I'm getting on with life – and that back will improve …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Pesky Beach Flies, essentially Eastbourne updates …

Well a few things to update you on … we had a Python, a Hippopotamus – not real in the 21^st century, bookshop and hotel fires, shingle history, and those pesky flies …

Looking down four road levels to the reef and sea

The python – yes: one was released into the foliage near where I quite often drop down to reach the lower promenade … 

Sub-Saharan Ball Python

... snakes I admire, but have never been my favourite …

Waiting at an ice-cream or cafe stop over ...
Hippo with dog watering bowl

Quickly moving on to a much larger animal – the hippo – around 600,000 years ago exotic animals roamed our rivers and valleys, when we and Europe were one landmass … this hippo though prefers walkers with dogs …

In the midst of the repairs

Fires – Camilla’s bookshop was getting new facades, floor and ceilings, book shelves, signage when I went past at the end of May – and met Camilla … asking after the state of the shop and Archie, the shop’s parrot, he is safe … while it happened to be his birthday – all of 25 years on May 28^th … so I think she was pleased someone asked after him. 

They lost lots of books … as the water damage went down into the basement … and now there’s the smoke damage to look into – still at least it will re-open when the time is right …

Spring bedding from the carpet gardens has been removed,
making way for the summer plantings.
Scaffolding in and around the Claremont, while
the Burlington Hotel is the building run you can see

The Claremont Hotel is being propped up, and has ongoing work being done to its utilities … but the Burlington Hotel, next to it, has lost its main customer base – a coach tour operator which has gone bust.  


How these two hotels and at least one other in Eastbourne can cope – we will wait and see … times are a challenge.

'Rainbowing' in action

Those shingle workers are at it again … I gather this spraying technique is known as ‘rainbowing’ … 

Looking west towards Beachy Head -
during early lock-down

... the shingle is unloaded about a mile from Beachy Head, as Holywell is found at a Site of Special Scientific Interest … dumper trucks take it along the beach on that last mile.

Working area ... during lock-down - when no tempting
ice-cream parlours would be open.

The system is that the dredger, Sospan Dau, with its full load arrives at high tide … discharges its load ...



... leaves for the Owers bank to the east of the Isle of Wight … to suck up another load of shingle sediment … and repeat the process.

The Owers - to the east of the Isle of Wight,
off the West Sussex coast - shingle banks

Sospan Dau is a Welsh name … originating from a famous folk song, Sosban Fach and Llanelli’s tin plating industry … Sospan being the Welsh for Saucepan and Dau being Welsh for Two … a successor dredger to Sosban Fach (little saucepan).  Please see Wiki!

Weenbrug - a Dutch name from a map of
1583 ... with the shingle banks marked

The Owers Bank has some history too … before the 1500s an early trading port, Rumbrug, could be found … as shown in this Dutch map … 



... but still appears on The Owers shingle banks map of today to the east of the Isle of Wight …

Low tide, the reefs, a groyne, the strandline
on a hot May early evening day

… and now we’ve been lingering far too long on the sticky Eastbourne shore in this time of Covid 19 and our hot sticky May month …

… those pesky beach flies will be doing their good deeds … and no doubt irritatingly dropping in on our sweaty, sun-stoked bodies … the fat squidgy larvae will work their wonders … eating through the flotsam and jetsam curled up onto the shingle after high tide …

Seaweed fly

… reminding us of the ancient ecosystem, that since time began, has been recycling all before it … plump larvae, beetles, flies, insect and spider predators … ready to feed the birds and their chicks.

Dorset's coast (further west) with its
impressive strandline

The strandline is an ancient phenomenon having a unique biodiversity and ecology … which we are only just beginning to understand … let it do its work – we just need to take the dreaded plastic and other particular nasties away with us.

That’s all folks … until I find one more thing I’d like to write up re Eastbourne … but the Sospan Dau ended up linking a Welsh thread to Eastbourne’s seafront …

A bank of vegetation just above the first promenade

The sunny weather has disappeared … down here we have a little much needed rain … take care each and everyone of you …

Extra note on pesky flies: - they're not an irrelevant nuisance on the beach.  The play a key role in cleaning up the debris, without them beachcombers would be knee deep in smelly slime.  There are many species - each one specialising ... rotting seaweed, or bodies of animals ... and all other, except that dreaded plastic ...

Wiki - Sospan Dau ... info on the dreder ... 

Wiki - Sospan Fach ... info on the folk song ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Babel of Struggling through the A-Z ...

The Babel of the A-Z is over … so well done all for successfully completing another year – I really missed it … but am ready: one big project over for 2017!

Ruins of Babylon as seen from Saddam Hussein's
Summer Palace ... don't let our world get like this?!

I will be happy to read your Reflections … always interesting to see everyone’s views … but to take you away from your sheer exhaustion … I shall be whisking you off to South Africa in a few days for some much needed R & R …

A Cornish Hedgerow or verge ...
foxgloves and cow parsley happily growing ... 

For now some more delights of the English countryside … the land we love when we are in it … but which is not appreciated by so so many of us …

English landscape with lots of field hedges

Hedgerows … varied … and essential against the stormy winds, protect our animals … giving extra homes to our insects, birds and wildlife …

Church at Hollington, St Leonards,
East Sussex (Stained Glass Window by
Jean-Baptiste Capronnier)

Country Churches … so many, so much history and memories … wonderful stained glass windows created by medieval or recent artists …

Stone Barn

Stone Barns … barn coming from Old English bere, for barley (or grain in general), and aern, for a storage place …

Oats in various forms - threshed and
winnowed, seed heads ... 

… a place to store unthreshed cereals and fodder … riddling our landscape … sadly some in dire need of repair …

Oxeye daisies in a verge ... 

Verges full of Wild Flowers … cow parsley, daisies, thrift, foxglove, teasels, bluebells, field scabious … and others: see – Bob Scotney’sA-Z posts this year …

Sheep on the Cumbrian Fells 

Sheep roaming over windswept fells … you’ll see lots of these next year and learn a few things …

Glamis post office and village shop in Scotland
(where the Queen Mother had her castle)

Village shops and post offices … so often the heart of villages … ‘gossip’, but keeping an eye on the community, selling or promoting produce available, stamps and letter or parcel collection, cash providers once banks had closed …

Little Sutton, Northamptonshire PO and shop

…. some wonderful communities are getting together to support their local villagers – perhaps even taking shares in the new project … volunteers manning and helping out …

New potatoes - Irish Reds ... 

Different to our lives 60 or 70 years ago ... but then that’s change …

Path through early summer greens - at Old Sarum

We just need to help all peoples to understand the need for our countryside, our villages, our farming communities … to see how life has grown and developed – the history of our lives, as well as how beneficial all these areas are …

A small holding for sale in Wales ... some
repair needed to these barns

Let us celebrate our countryside and our way of life … celebrate individuality – we all need to be creative and not follow the crowd … let us lead … let us keep our nature intact and not destroy our original habitat ... 

Very fresh vegetables and no doubt fruit
from Roberts Farm Shop, Kidderminster

… let us value people, animals, insects, and all things – and then encourage our friends and families to do likewise …

Deniz Bevan of The Girdle of Melian blog - has been writing about The Inklings (literary enthusiasts) ... including Tolkien, C S Lewis ... and others ... in this post there is a lovely description of England in the 1920s ... 

Dappled sun on a woodland ... teeming with
wildlife and bird song ... 

... walking the paths, with very little extraneous noise ... just the scrunch of feet on the ground, insects buzzing ...  keeping the birds chirping their songs for a good birding supper ... then the humans can have another happy discussion over a china tea cup, or a pint in the pub ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Déjà vu Blogfest, Emily Hobhouse and her Open Christmas Letter …

A letter “To the Women of Germany and Austria” was a public message for peace signed by 101 British women suffragists at the end of 1914 as the first Christmas of World War 1 approached.

Emily Hobhouse authored the Open Christmas Letter and circulated it for signatures.  For now I leave you to read more at the Wikipedia page on the Letter … and I will draft my post about Emily next year.

The paragraph titled “Message” is worth reading …

Emily Hobhouse
(1860 - 1926)

One hundred and one years ago life was not much different ... wars were going on ... the genders were not treated equally ... food was scarce ... peoples from all over the world helped (and hindered) each other, ideas were sewn to improve the world ... and so it goes.

Déjà vu blogfest – I am afraid I failed … but I had a look at my posts – and you are all so generous in your support, and your thoughtful comments … that I felt you'd all come by  and read with elegant sufficiency! ... 

A hedgehog igloo

… except perhaps the Hedgehog and Harvest Mouse post earlier this month … with now the added question when cometh winter? … and how will flora and fauna adapt to these warm conditions …

… today is the shortest day of the year - tomorrow the light increases (yeah) in the northern hemisphere … becoming apparent in the middle of January.

Winter Cyclamen

So for now a very happy Christmas to one and all … and as Emily and her fellow suffragists from the UK, America, Germany, Austria, South Africa, India, Switzerland, Netherlands, Belgium, France, and many more sympathisers wished … 

… “Is it not our mission to preserve life?”

… today with our knowledge broader, I would add … we need to cherish all life … from a humble bee, to an innocent insect, to  creeping, clambering plants, to the elephantidae …

… the only surviving family of the order Proboscidea … and back to the chongolo – the renowned African millipede …

And as a respected member of Hilary’s society – Hardwick sends his 'bestest' wishes to you all for a very Happy Christmas and hopes you will have lots of happiness at all times …

Remember others … smile lots … think of the planet as you go about your Christmassy days and each of the 365 to follow as 2016 approaches …

Happy Christmas and/or Happy Holidays ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories