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

Co-incidence # 1 in life: 'Delizia' Epic History of Italian Food ...

 

Italian food … what's not to like?! - but its history ... now that's an interesting subject …

John DIckie's book

I have two goddaughters – one is 'real', while t'other is 'her twin' – my brother's niece … born on the same day – the year I got back from South Africa – early 1990s.

The honorary goddaughter has recently become engaged and they seem to be spending (short break) time in Italy … so I thought a book on the History of Italian Food for them might be a good idea – which'd also interest me – I can read it before I hand it over!

This is an American film, but
looked a fun run in the kitchen

'Delizia' {The Epic History of Italians and their Food (2007)} by John Dickie looked to be a good choice – however when it arrived it appeared to be of American origin … and I prefer a British outtake (rightly or wrongly!) …

But John Dickie is, as it happens, of British origin – an author, historian and academic, who specialises in Italy. Perfect … except for the mis-spellings throughout the book.

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci

Anyway forgetting that … I've been watching Stanley Tucci's 'Searching for Italy' on the BBC (originally CNN) … and who did he meet up with in this last programme – yes, you guessed it – but John Dickie – Professor of Italian Studies at University College London. Co-incidence # 1 ….

I had no idea who Stanley Tucci was (bad me!) until I saw the film 'Supernova (2020)' in which he starred with Colin Firth – a very British film … and now I know who Stanley Tucci is …

I think I'll give you co-incidence # 2 next time … it's way off any link I can think of (yes, even me!) … other than 'co-incidence' …

Coat of Arms of the
Order of the Humble Ones

So feast your thoughts on some early ideas of living in Italy way back when … such as you're Bonvesin de ala Riva (c 1240 – c 1313) … a lay well-to-do member of the Ordine degli Umiliati (literally “Order of the Humble Ones”) …

He lived in the marvelliosa city of Milan, waxing lyrical over it while believing it to be 'exalted among cities' … the ideal medieval earthly city – abundantly supplied with meats, poultry … also fish … yet it is the local fruits and vegetables that feed Bonsevin's civic patriotism.

Agricultural Calendar c 1740

Interesting man as you can see from the descriptions above – who, as was the custom in medieval Milan, slept with all his household in one same large (? ginormous) bed … his wife and children, apprentices and servants …

Great Bed of Ware

Thank goodness I have my own bed now – though appreciate many don't!

Back to feasts … I won't go into the how and why … but Dickie mentions Osso Buco – one of my own very early offerings – when I could get the meat (bone with a hole – where the delizia marrow can be found) from Oxford market – a place I miss to this day after 55+ years.

Osso Buco served with risotto

Right I'm off the memories of early days when I loved to entertain – trying all kinds of delicious dishes … so my honorary goddaughter will be getting this 'historio libro Italiano' (I'm sure this is not correct!) … for Christmas …

So that's that for this post … dream Italian food – similar to the one written two years ago for WEP about a tree house restaurant …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Write ... Edit ... Publish ... Bloghop / IWSG hop: Thriller ...

 

Splurp, Burp, gulp, buccalling … bubble, bubbly boil arising from the primordial mud – cometh 'I' … the thrills and spills of life …

Spluttering into life ... 

The Thriller …

Earth, that blue planet we know today … had been bumped and bashed around until we found our rotating space in the unknown interstellar world …

Collage of Prokaryotic
Organisms

… this 'I' or 'You' … or 'Us' … started life 3.5 – 3.8 billion years ago from these simple cells (prokaryotes) … Earth had been bumped and bashed into the blue planet of our space era today about 4.6 billion years ago …

Artist's Reconstruction
of Saccorhytus
Coronaris - probably no
more than one mm in size

… During which over four billion of those years … cometh 'the human thriller' … watch those images... this was us, then us, then them, then what ….???

Paedomorphic salamander - an Axolotl

... we escaped the primordial soup as complex cells (eukaryotes), these organisms learnt to convert sunlight into energy …

Collage of Eukaryotes

… then we had arthropods (ancestors of insects, arachnids and crustaceans); animals appeared; then fish and proto-amphibians: from these plants, insects proper, seeds, amphibians proper!, reptiles … slithery critters …

Did I really become this?

… subsequently … the thriller thought about appearing … 

Did I learn to copy myself?

he, she or it started the mammalian journey

Too late for us?

of human life …

Film makers in space

… Homo erectus appeared … we changed too – why? … you call these things THRILLER – look at them … what a varied bunch …

Here we are ... still being stirred?

The Thriller 'I' spluttered out, apparently walked on water … before realising there is such a thing as land … then we grew things …

The THRILLER of life …

Life keeps rolling on

I hope you've followed 'our' thrilling development over 3.5 billion years …

Now what does the next – well let's give ourselves- at least half a billion more years on this earth …

Buccalling our very early way to breath

Tagline:

A buccalling blob slurping its way into the thrill of life itself … a time line of bubbling burping life …

Nothing else to be said ... 

Are they coming ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Barbers and/or Surgeons ... Guilds of ...

 

The wonder of putting finger to keyboard … i.e. to connect brain to producing something fanciful, or perhaps even informative …

Achievement of Arms of the Worshipful
Company of Barber-Surgeons;
Gouache on Cloth.
(possibly early in 1300AD)

This brain does work … but rather more often than not it wanders off … I have so much to write up about – note to self: settle down and get on with them …

Recently I heard a talk from a retired doctor about the work he has been doing out in poverty ridden communities in various places around the world … this particular one was on Ethiopia … working with a team of eye surgeons.

Master John Banister - Anatomical
Tables with figures: c 1580AD

He's worked in in Canada, in, what I term Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa … where there are war-torn communities - refugee camps etc …

He was fascinating … so more to follow – but he's giving a talk to the Worshipful Company of Barbers on his work … which got me thinking about haircuts … I've just had one!

F A Maulbertschs 'The Quack' 1785

… Barbers, in the 1300s, originally aided monks, who, at the time, were the medical men, because Papal decrees prohibited members of religious orders from spilling blood.

Interesting … barbers in addition to hair cutting, hairdressing, and shaving … performed surgery: neck manipulation; cleansing of ears and scalp; draining/lancing of boils, fistulae, and cysts with wicks; bloodletting and leeching, fire cupping; enemas; and the extraction of teeth.

Crumbs – am I not glad I live in today's age!

Royal College of Surgeons - 
Court of Examiners (1894)
by Henry Jamyn Brooks

The Worshipful Company of Barbers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London, and ranks 17^th in precedence.

However if we row back in the mind to Roman times c/o Websters Dictionary of Phrase and Fable … the barber's shop has been a centre for the dissemination of scandal, and the talk of the town … I guess no snares appearing in this blogosphere …

Thankfully over time the Royal College of Surgeons promoted and advanced standards of surgical care for patients – both in surgery and dentistry … being established in 1800 …

1st century wall painting from Pompeii
(a family banquet)

While the Barbers Company now principally acts as a charitable institution for medical and surgical causes …

Well that's good my fingers haven't been cut off … and I can apparently still type – thank goodness for modern inventions … such as computers with their keyboards … I won't add instruments of surgical torment … just a few 'pretty' pictures …

Thanks for waiting for me … WEP's Thriller this week is a-coming …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Concrete Lemon …

 

Well it's not what I thought … I imagined that this would be a great subject for a We Are The World Blogfest post …

Detailed taxonomic illustration by
Kohler 1897

… but no … it is most definitely not concrete in the way we understand it today … the term arose in the early 1500s coming about from Latin (concretus) – having different meanings as the language English progressed – and those grammatical aspects are way beyond me … (I looked up concrete origin of word): the English Language is a dynamic one … always changing …

Right let's get back to lemons … and the Mr Coxwell … who perfected this concrete lemon substance …

An essay by Dr Trotter

Mr Coxwell was a chemist and druggist in Fleet Street, London and was a member of the Committee of Chemistry at the Society for the Promotion of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, and … as you know the inventor of concrete lemon.

Concrete as we know it – it was not - but it did have the appearance of smashed white sugar … perhaps I'll look at concrete dust differently now …

Henry Coxwell's description

However Mr Coxwell had created crystallised lemon juice for use at sea … to ease the disease of scurvy …

Scurvy had been recorded in Ancient Egypt over 3,500 years ago; Hippocrates, the Greek physician, described the symptoms of scurvy; the Chinese recognised it …

Eventually in the early years of the 2^nd millennium 'we' started to catch up - that fresh citrus particularly could ward off scurvy …

Produce could be part of the cargo – but would not last … so stop off points were found and then planted with fruit trees and vegetables to be available for maritime travellers …

Very early Cape Town, harbour and 
Table Mountain

… Jan van Riebeeck, acting for the Dutch East India Company, arrived in 1792 at what is now the Cape Town area to set up a victualing settlement to grow fruit trees and develop gardens for a permanent supply of fresh produce.

These stop off points developed in places such as St Helena Island, along the St Lawrence River ... and other places as explorers opened up the world …

Communication and the spread of information was not easy in these early days … so it took until the 1920s before 'our world' understood scurvy … now in the 21^st century it is virtually eliminated though still occurs amongst malnourished people and there have been outbreaks in refugee camps ...

Back to Coxwell and his concrete lemon that particularly valuable commodity … developed in the late 1700s and early 1800s – at least it could be kept and stored easily in the cargo … as a veritable increase in trade spread around the globe.

Description of his reduced lemon juice
in the Bath Chronicle of 1799

The wonders of life through the ages ... 

On July 10^th 1784 … see Crell's Journal in the link … where he notes that 'there is a worm that cankers the bud of all improvement here' … the Naval Service took a while before this ingenious discovery would benefit its seamen.

This subject bemused me … to be found … c/o British Library and its archives … and I learnt quite a lot from reading it …

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Bran Tub # 24 … Spoon-billed Sandpiper and its 1869 lithographer …

 

Being behind the curve as usual … I spotted this wonderful looking lithograph of the spoon-bill sandpiper – illustrated by John Gerrard Keulemans in 1869 – which led me to various things …

Illustration by John Gerrard Keulemans
(1869)

Oh dear … my interpretation of the title on this book in my little mind was Eleven Birds in House and Town … but as you can see it should be and is: Our Birds in House and Garden …

Keuleman's publication
volume one

Not sure now how I got to the Spoon-billed Sandpiper … but another name came into the frame … Laysan Island … one of the North-western (Leeward) Islands (originally the Sandwich Islands – so named by James Cook in 1778).

Laysan Island one of the tiny islands in
the long-tail of the volcanic chain

This is part of the Hawaiian Islands … a chain of volcanoes that stretch about 2,700 km (1,700 miles) in a north-westerly direction … these are constantly on the move as new islands are created over tens of thousands of years … about 7 cm (or 2.75 inches) per year …

This bird is critically endangered … the main threats to survival are habitat loss on its breeding grounds and loss of tidal flats … in and around that huge area the Pacific Ocean …

Spoon-billed Sandpiper's distribution -
around the Pacific Ocean

… it nests in June-July on coastal areas in the tundra, choosing locations with grass close to freshwater pools.

Head of the Spoon-billed Sandpiper 
c 1890 illusration

They feed on moss in the tundras, as well as smaller animal species like mosquitoes, flies, beetles, and spiders … at times they feed on marine vertebrates such as shrimp and worms.

Captain Cook's three voyages: red in 1768,
green in 1772; his final one - he was killed
in the Hawaiian islands in 1776

The gales and storms above the seas will send many a small animal off course …

Captain James Cook c 1775

On looking at Captain Cook and then his wife through these portraits … we can certainly see some of the cultural changes that have occurred in the last 300 years …

Elizabeth Cook - 56 years a widow (1830)

The storms of life are most definitely still occurring … I digress once again … I think it's time I disappeared back onto my curve again …

Spoon-billed Sandpiper ...

John Gerrard Keulemans - his three volume works ... 

James Cook and his history ... 

National Geographic and the chain of Hawaiian Islands hotspot ... 

Saving the Spoon-Billed Sandpiper site ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories