IMMA 2023 - ann ensor

EARTH-RISING

This work has been made in response to and inspired by the book ‘Earth Emotions’ by Glenn Albrecht. Albrecht uses the word ‘solastalgia’ to describe the pain and distress caused by a lack of solace and sense of desolation connected to the present state of one’s home and territory and the lived experience of negative environmental change. Albrecht suggests we could help heal traumatised people who are emotionally lost by reminding them of our connection to the earth and a life that is a shared arrangement with all other forms of life. Ensor is now striving to make work that will bring about healing and solace to people by making people aware of shared spaces with other beings where humans are not separate from nature but part of it.

This Eco-Shelter has been woven for the EARTH RISING FESTIVAL 2023 and it celebrates a woven life found in our everyday living. Plant materials, bark, mushrooms, seaweed, shells, hair, roots, feathers, plastic and upcycled cotton fabric have been used in the making of the work. By being enfolded in the shelter Ensor wants people to be aware of a common spirituality between all entities. A panel woven with hair from a horse, dog, cat, sheep, human, palm and seaweed suggests a close relationship between the different species. In this imagined refuge a person can remember and contemplate our present and past lives along with our shared relationships with fellow creatures and the earth. We can then dream different approaches to cooperation and sharing a sustainable future.

The work seeks to be a catalyst in changing the way people think about the sustainability of the planet. Looms have been set up for participation in weaving further panels for the shelter.