Writing the world to come with soil-stained fingers (2024)

A blooming desk, a pinboard occupied by posies, seeds sprouting from a suit pant pocket. Errant plants emerge at the edges of these apparatus commonly associated with the bureaucratic decision-makers charged to determine the fate of who gets to live and die whilst being absurdly detached from ecology. Whilst biodiversity diminishes thanks to enclosures of space and enclosures of knowledge, the plants persist and insist. This poetic rumination demands that climate breakdown needs to be embodied and touched as emphasised in Astrida Neimanis and Jennifer Hamilton’s quote, “in the seminar room as in the community garden, we are writing the world-to-come with soil-stained fingers.”

Materials: Pages (from House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Biodiversity in the UK: bloom or bust? 2021–22); amateur ikebana of reclaimed plants; reclaimed wood; soil-stained fingers.