SYMBIOTIC RELATIONSHIPS
talks and workshops
James Orr (director) Friends of the Earth, Northern Ireland
in conversation with Ami Clarke
7th March 6-8pm at Banner Repeater
during
SYSTEMS COLLAPSE: Meeting The Lough On Its Own Terms
exhibition: 20th Feb - 23rd May
in partnership with Friends of the Earth NI, Digital Art Studios, Sonic Arts Research Centre QUB, PS² (Belfast), and Banner Repeater (London).
kindly supported by Arts Council England
Please join us for a discussion on art and the environment, between James Orr (director) Friends of the Earth Northern Ireland, and artist Ami Clarke for ‘Symbiotic Relationships talks and events’, during the exhibition ‘Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms’.
We will discuss the multimedia project that Clarke has developed alongside FotE, bringing a multi-species perspective from a microbial scale, via evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis’ work, to environmental concerns, and expand upon the work that James and Friends of the Earth NI have been involved with over many decades as firm supporters of artful interventions in pursuit of fairer climate conditions for all.
Follow the Slurry, Follow the Money (print)
SYSTEMS COLLAPSE
The work responds to the situation in 2023 when Lough Neagh, the largest body of water in Ireland and the UK, became overwhelmed with algae blooms to such an extent that the vibrant green images of the blue green algae went viral, making international headlines. Two years on, the artwork was exhibited at PS2 gallery, Belfast, to coincide with the Lough becoming overwhelmed with algae blooms again (Tommy Greene The Guardian). 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.
Artist Ami Clarke’s previous work on complexity in environmental concerns (The Underlying) meant that she was welcomed over to visit the Lough, and so began a two and a half year conversation with FotE and associates, via a collective writing project, that seeks to address the converging issues that bring about the eco-crisis at Lough Neagh. A shared interest in systems theory meant that an emphasis on ‘Meeting the Lough On Its Own Terms’ explored ways of ‘sensing the lough’ whilst emphasising the Rights Of Nature, from a de-centred human (not de-valued), multispecies perspective, at the microbial scale. Whilst the project responds to the ecological disaster at Lough Neagh, it speaks to deeply entrenched larger environmental issues shared across the UK.
SHIFTING PERSPECTIVES TO THE MICROBIAL SCALE
Algae blooms offer a symptom of the climate crisis that emphasises the interconnectedness of vulnerable ecosystems with human-made systems.
The microbial scale of the cyanobacteria (blue green algae) is important in allowing us to cut through the complexity, drawing our attention to certain indisputable material facts that show that there is simply too much phosphorous in Lough Neagh, at which point we can start to dismantle everything that makes it this way.
James and Ami will discuss the complex systems that converge at Lough Neagh, that mean that 52% more phosphorous has found its way into the lough since 2012. These include historical extractivism via colonialism, to modern day extractivism via neoliberalism, Big Ag, and the difficulties in actualising the Rights of Nature in a fair and democratic way.
Our focus on the microbial scale has the potential to lead to a paradigm shift in thinking; a gut feeling (we are 90% non-human DNA), as we start to understand our relationship to nature from a more de-centred perspective, as just one species amongst the multitudes that live within the vulnerable eco-system of Lough Neagh, vital to finding a more sustainable equilibrium.
As evolutionary biologist Lynn Margulis would say ‘it doesn’t have to be this way”...