Reworlding
‘Verwerelden’ is a Dutch verb introduced by animal rights philosopher Eva Meijer. The new word means something like 'to become more part of the world' or 'becoming more world-like'. We were invited for an outdoor exhibition organized by Eva and artist Gijsje Heemskerk. The show was an investigation into how people can learn to listen better to the animals and plants with whom we share our living space. The exhibition took place the last weekend of August in Eva’s garden in Landsmeer in The Netherlands. Human and non-human works, studies and interventions were presented. Amongst the non-human participants were a toad, a dog, flies and beetles. This small-scale experiment aims to bring about a new attitude towards artistry and the relationship with others - people, non-people and the environment. For our contribution we asked Eva to draw a map of her garden and we then tried to find a representative of her garden amongst the 800 million years old schist fragments on Port Lomaidh, a beach opposite Bendoran on isle of Mull. These stones were deposited in a shallow sea on the edge of a supercontinent called Rodinia. They formed sands and muds and over the millions of years metamorphosed through heat and pressure into the rocks we see today.
For this work with the title ‘Eva’s Garden at Port Lomaidh’ we searched instead of sculpted. We stumbled upon the idea that any desired shape must exist somewhere already. This piece of schist was the closest ‘fit’ to the garden so we decided to take it with us and send it by post. One could think that this silly journey facilitated by Royal Mail would be insignificant to this stone, but it will surely alter its further erosion proces. (The piece of clay besides the stone is the name tag.)
