Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms
Ami Clarke
 

exhibition: 20th February - 23rd May

opening hours fri-sun 12-6pm
kindly supported by Arts Council England

 

Algae blooms offer a symptom of the climate crisis that emphasises

the interconnectedness of vulnerable ecosystems with human-made systems.

 

Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms brings a symbiotic approach to developing the Rights of Nature at Lough Neagh; a live ecocide, where the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK became overwhelmed by algae blooms. The story of evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’s work on microbial life challenges the ideological construction of neoliberalism, developed via Neo-Darwinist concepts of competition and the selfish gene, with her emphasis on symbiotic life, collaborative processes, and the understanding that organisms emerge in synthesis with the environment.

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The work draws upon a collective writing project and conversations over 2.5 years with Friends of the Earth NI and associates, druids, herbalists, campaigners, and eco-lawyers engaged with ancient Irish Brehon Law, to tell of the multiple stories running through the Lough from a decolonial, more-than-human, microbial perspective.

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Follow the slurry, follow the money.

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Once a site of great abundance, supplying (as it still does) 40% of all drinking water to NI, with eel fishing famously being passed down across generations over centuries, the complexity of how the Lough became eutrophic presents a textbook case in converging dynamics of power, influence, and conflicts of interest, that have also developed over decades, if not centuries, around Lough Neagh and the watershed. Whilst the work focuses on Lough Neagh, it speaks to much broader concerns regarding how environmental neglect affects both democratic processes, and public health, as neoliberal policies entangle with algae blooms.  The material emphasis on the nutrients in the lough, raises awareness, educates and empowers advocacy for more effective environmental regulations and democratic processes leading to establishing the Rights of Nature.

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The focus on the microbial scale holds the potential to lead to a paradigm shift in thinking; a gut feeling, even, as humans recalibrate a relationship to nature from a de-centred multi-species perspective. The story of evolutionary biology unpacks the converging ideological world views that bring us to a state of systems collapse today, and how thinking in systems i.e. ‘ecological thinking’ is now vital for our very survival.

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