There are lots of artistic investigations out there focusing on the way humans relate to their surrounding environments, like yours.
Ally Reeves and Robin Hewlett have an ongoing project about just that. One Mile Diet takes the concept of the 100 Miles Diet movement to a new height (or distance, rather).
Here’s how Ally Reeves introduce the idea:
One Mile Meal is a research and performance expedition touring US cities during the growing/harvesting seasons, in 2007 and 2008. Robin Hewlett and I spend an eight-hour day biking within a one-mile radius of our host venue. The goal is to find food growing (either wild or cultivated) within the city. In the evening we return to the host space to share scavenged food, stories and conversation with our audience. One Mile Meal creates an opportunity to talk with a lot of different people about their cities and local food initiatives, share the challenges of creating a sustainable lifestyle and learn from the efforts of others.
Of Robin you’d like to quote the introductory statement on her website..as a preamble for artistic investigations is probably closer to anything you have ever written about what you do.
welcome to robinhewlett.com…
I am an artist/organizer, based in Pittsburgh PA. Rather than making things, I make things happen. I approach art making as life practice in the same way that an athlete might shoot hoops as basketball practice. Art making becomes a series of exercises that allow me to practice the things I want to be better at in life. This mostly includes interacting with other people, addressing systems of power, and creating ethical, sustainable ways of relating to the world around me. I like to invite other people to practice with me. If you’re interested, get in touch!
You’re contacting them, as a matter of courtesy for letting them know about this posting, and as a matter of seeking support for an art practice which is draining so much of your time/resources for no apparent outcome.
What’s the point of all this?
uhmm
You’re not sure there is any, outside of personal urge..
You found this piece yesterday.
You wrote it some time ago and saved it in some obscure folder which made sense back then:
One of the central question posed through Environmental Art is the understanding of our human dependency to our surroundings.
The way we relate physically and emotionally to a given ecosystem is the core driver of how we feel about it and how much we respect it.
The ethnobotanical knowledge of traditional land custodians is an example of intrinsic symbiosis between humans and other species. One affecting each other.
When it comes to the reality of today’s world population, with ever-increasing migrating patterns from one corner of the earth to the other, in endless loops, ancestral connections get lost in foreign biospheres.
Or are them not?As an artist and recent migrant from Italy to Australia I started an investigation into lost ethnobotanical connections.
The species I -as non-indigenous- relate to are non-natives, most of them are considered weeds, nuisances and even dangerous.Yet in a time when any feeling of environmental belonging should be fostered in order to create respect and placement, weeds serve a purpose well beyond the mere pioneer plant aspect.
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