unplug the infinite

We need to "reinvent movement, the vector of our actions. We need to not forge ahead into the infinite, but learn to step back, to unplug, in the face of the finite. That's another way of liberating yourself. A form of feeling your way, and, curiously, of becoming capable again of reacting." Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis. 

Photo of tapestry (80 x 74 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October, 2024.

The real thing

"there’s a particular kind of disappointment when you begin to admire a bouquet or a blossom at a distance and find out closer up that it’s fake. The disappointment arises in part from having been deceived, but also from encountering an object that is static, that will never die because it never lived, that didn’t form itself out of the earth, and that as a texture coarser, dryer, less inviting to the touch than a mortal flower.” (Solnit, 2020, Orwell’s roses). That's what I think about chatGPT, artificial things, and fakes. When everything is automated, human interaction is precious. More than ever, the natural, the handmade, the imperfect, becomes the real luxury. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"To remain aloof from the group while honouring one's organic ties to it; to exist between loneliness and alignment, remaining always a bit of a stranger; to resist the resolution of the narrative, the closing of the circle; to keep looking, to not feel too at home." Isabella Hammad (2024). Recognising the Stranger. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"It's the spectator who judges and who decides, to the point where every relationship between forest, sun, lake, animal and sky goes via him and is establish for his sole good. It scarcely matters, moreover, whether what’s been stuck in front of him is an old master, an industrial development project, a battle plan, a view of the sky, a theatre scene or the map of a realm some prince hopes to control.” Bruno Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis.

Photo of mini tapestry (15 x 9 cm) with dry flowers, plant leafs and fibers. by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 8, 2024.

October

“I experienced awe and wonder at this world we live in. How incredible existence is. The probability of our being here, of having survived as a species in this tiny spec of a planet. I was gripped with a desire to keep going – to experience more of this thing we call existence. It dawned on me how precious life is (Bradley, 2023). But “how do we make Earth a credible base if the land has already been appropriated and reterritorialized by those who are carving it among themselves into so many juxtaposed nations with no common ideal other than the war of each against all?” (Latour, 2023).

Nick Bradley (2023), Four Seasons in Japan. Bruno Latour (2023), After Lockdown: metamorphosis. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). October, 2024.

October

"She paused, and ran some sentences through her head, almost hearing herself (...). But she only let the words echo through her head, bouncing around inside her body, some softly vibrating on the tip of her tongue. They remained unsaid." Nick Bradley (2023). Four Seasons in Japan.  Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). October, 2024.

September

"Because it is always tempting to over emphasize autonomy and independence, these helpless creatures are here to remind us that no one is, in the end, 'self-made'; we are all heavily in someone's debt. We realize that life depends - quite literally - on the capacity for love. (...) All this she will later forget and they will be unable or unwilling to convey to her." Alain de Botton (2017). The Course of Love. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). September 6, 2024.

July

"how can humans serve as sources of healing and regeneration for every living system they affect?" Regenerative Development and Design, a research study by Leen Gorissen, Karla Bonaldi, Piet Haerens and Lénia Rato. 

A simple question that can help us align our paths to solve the growing crises we are facing. Instead of prescribing a one-way route, the approach invites human actions fostering healing and regeneration as guiding rules/principles. Although holistic, it allows space for individual reflection of actions a person wants to follow (our own paths), but at the same time integrating the living systems we are part of, like communities, countries, climate, nature, organizations or religions. 

Going back to the uniqueness of the study, “not about sustaining what is or restoring what was” but “about creating thriving living systems—social-ecological systems such as places, organizations, communities, and ecosystems—that have the capacity to evolve toward increasing states of health, vitality and abundance over time”. The approach “calls for a new role for humans: to become agents of new vitality and evolutionary capability and to live in conscious alignment with living systems principles of wholeness, nestedness, relationship, and reciprocity, harmonizing human development with the way life works.” 

Engaged in thinking about “what does it take to actively create the wisdom, willpower, and capability to become co-creators of a brighter future, rather than being victims of the mistakes of our past”, while staying within the planetary boundary limits. 

While widening my horizons, I am healing and regenerating by acting on reducing consumption and litter, creating and taking care of a forest in a balcony city apartment (incorporating organic waste as compost and infrastructure), weaving plants into sensorial tapestries, reading and cultivating myself about other beautiful paths, investing in beings that cooperate and flourish together, and actively divesting in things/beings aligned with destruction, greed and revenge.

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). Lisbon, May 3, 2024.

June

"There is a connection between the brain and the hand that supports an embodied cognition, a knowing. Handicrafts in particular, which require dexterity and patience and a respect for the material, help make connections for us." Susan Magsamen & Ivy Ross (2023). Your Brain on Art: how the arts transform us.

Photo of mini tapestry (10 x 15 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 30, 2024.

June

The making of "Places of terrible beauty and layered earth and buried secrets." Suzane Simard (2022). Finding the Mother Tree: Uncovering the Wisdom and the Intelligence of the Forest. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). June 9, 2024.

June

"(...) from wholeness as a living plant to fragment strands and back to wholeness again as a" tapestry. "The dual powers of destruction and creation that shape the world. Strands once separated are rewoven into a new hole." Grief can "be comforted by creation, by rebuilding the homeland that was taken. The fragments, like ash splints, can be rewoven into a new whole." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.

Photo of tapestry (76 x 82 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 20, 2024.

Solstice

I've been discovering more affordances for the materials that nature (and people) offer me. At this time of the year there is an abundance of colours, textures, forms, and smells to choose from. They open up many possibilities for creation. Marking the Solstice, I finished the weaving of the last tapestry, prepared the loom weft and started the initial selection of natural materials for the next work. 

Suzane Simard's book Finding the Mother Tree as been traveling with me. In it, I just discover that if you cut the leader shoot "the pines won't know how to grow toward the sky". 

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) June 20,  2024.

June

"To let threads be articulate again and find a form for themselves to no other end than their own orchestration, not to be sat on, walked on, only to be looked at…" Anni Albers (1959). Pictorial Weaving. Wishlist book. Latest tapestry on the making detail photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) April, 2024.

Biodiversity

«Biodiversity is the driver of the farm. If I'm asked "What do you grow?", I say "Biodiversity". The vegetables are a by-product. (...) What I'm trying to do here is to copy the forest." To make farming work, "we need to restore a forest soil ecology, aligning farming with the original ecosystem. (...) Small farmers around the world are seeking such solutions, and have come together to build a global agroecology movement." George Monbiot (2023). Regenesis: Feeding the World without devouring the Planet. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) May 12, 2024.

May

"The most beautiful thing of all... is whatever you love best." Irene Vallejo (2022). Papyrus: the invention of books in the ancient world. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

creation at the core of art-I-fact

The beginning of a new tapestry starts long before I lay out the threads on the frame. Each tapestry starts as a synapse that survived in my brain. With time it weaves together with other synapses, creating a visual memory that grows and evolves, reinforcing some features and letting go others. This visual memory mixes with previous experiences, narratives of people, new and old books, and life’s events at the gestating stage. Then, the image of possibilities for the next work meets with the material affordances of all the resources collected. Materiality that will give substance to daydream explorations, until the dialogue between mind, hands, vision, and materials becomes irresistible and the fragrances fill the room with the materialization of a new art-I-fact. From stillness to flow. Hatched from a resilient synapse that joined with others. Creation at the core. Flourishing by coming into being. 

Photo of tapestry (83  x 78 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

April

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) April 13, 2024.

April

 Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) April 13, 2024.

April

"When you tape into the arts to foster a meditative state, the places in your brain responsible for judgment and personal criticism are quieted in your prefrontal cortex, and you can assess a more generous, perspective-taking point of view." Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross (2023). Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Transform Us. Obra de Cruz-Filipe. Exposição Modo de Ver na Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. 

sugar and oxygen

"Carbon dioxide plus water combined in the presence of light and chlorophyl in the beautiful membrane-bound machinery of life yields sugar and oxygen." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

March

O tempo oferece palcos onde vamos esculpindo vidas. A nossa e a de outros seres que se entrelaçam na nossa. O tempo, esse grande escultor, de Marguerite Yourcenar. No das plantas e no meu, recomeça um novo ciclo. Juntas, vamos esculpindo o tempo. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

March

How can we go on living our lives when people of war keep annihilating lives around the world? How can we devise a prosperous future for anyone or any country, when we can´t even guaranty the basic conditions of peace, shelter and food for life to happen? How can we allow that money and precious resources are allocated to destruction, instead of construction? What does our silence reveal in the face of all the monstrosities going on? How can we not enrage with the ineptitude of all the institutions that where supposed to avoid the suffering worldwide? When did we get so numbed that we can pretend that's not our problem? What does it take us to realize that if someone is left to destroy others they can destroy us? How can we keep on participating in the web of life if the ones in power are destroying our chances of future? When is enough enough? How much longer for the day when we all decide united, regardless of our nationalities and places of birth, that there is no place for war? No place for machines of war. No place for economies of war. No place for men of war. Maybe it's time. May we build a prosperous future for all and not for some, fostering prosperity for all and displacing greed. Rebuilding what was destroyed, healing wounded and land so we can heal ourselves. May the war be over! 

War is Over poster in English, image: CC BY-NC 2.0 by Yoko Ono official.

February

"What if we could fashion a restoration plan that grew from understanding multiple meanings of land? Land as sustainer. Land as identity. Land as grocery store and pharmacy. Land as connection to our ancestors. Land as moral obligation. Land as sacred. Land as self. (..) Land as home." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. 

Weaving roots to a better world. Photo of tapestry (86 x 78 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

February

"Beauty is not only formal, and lies not only in the superficial qualities that are appealing to the eye or ear, it lies in patterns of meaning, in evocations of values, and its connection to the life the reader is living and the world she wants to see." Rebecca Solnit (2022). Orwell's Roses. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

February

"We know that loving a person has agency and power - we know it can change everything. Yet we act as if loving the land is an internal affair that has no energy outside the confines of our head and heart." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Photo by Monica Pinheiro. Free to use if you respect the license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

February

“Imperfect they may be, but I believe they are a beginning of a reweaving of the bond between people and the land. (…) I can take the buried stone from my heart and plant it here, restoring land, restoring culture, restoring myself.” Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) 2024.

January

"Time as objective reality has never made much sense to me. It's what happens that matters. (...) If there is meaning in the past and in the imagined future, it is captured in the moment. (...) And we think of it as simply time, as if it where a thing, as if we understood it. Maybe there is no such thing as time; there are only moments, each with its own story." Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), taken January 21, 2024.

January

“If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.” Robin Wall Kimerer (2020). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants. 

One month into winter (January 27), this black locust tree shows Spring time. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), taken January 27, 2024. 

Solstice

Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC), taken November 7, 2023.

cooperation

“In fighting against resistance, we will become more focused on getting rid of the problem than on understanding what it is; by contrast, when working with resistance we want to suspend frustration at being blocked, and instead engage with the problem in its own right”. Richard Sennett (2013). Together. The Rituals, Pleasures & Politics of Cooperation. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

unselfing

"Observing something beautiful" is "an occasion for unselfing" and it "may well hold the key to our collective survival. Because it means that our role here on earth is not simply to maximize the advantage in our lives (...). It's to maximize (protect, regenerate) all life. We are here not just to make sure we as individuals survive, but to make sure that life survives. (...) We must attempt, with great urgency, to imagine a world that does not require Shadow Lands, that is not predicated on sacrificial people and sacrificial ecologies and sacrificial continents. More than imagine it, we must begin, at once, to build it." Naomi Klein (2023). Doppelganger. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Human rights

«(...) words and ideas underwent a radical currency devaluation, a crash connected, in ways we have barely begun to understand, to the torrent of words in which we are swimming (...). I appreciated Greta's "Blah, blah, blah" speeches because they precisely captured the pervasive feeling of speechlessness, far better than my own impotent and sullen silences in this period.» Naomi Klein (2023). Doppelganger. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

November

"(...) metamorphosis occurs when two or more unlike elements are joined (...). Here the craftsman has consciously to decide if the combination will best work like a compound, in which the whole becomes different than its parts, or like a mixture, in which the elements continue an independent coexistence." Richard Sennett (2009). The Craftsman. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Less machines

While reading about the «Workshop in Rotterdam: How to Build a Bike Generator», discovered the larger solution scenarios for human powered societies, that tackle much more then climate crises and fossil consumption. They present integrated solutions to increase biodiversity, reduce city concentration, production near place of consumption, better health, sustainable farming, better soils and food, more wellbeing. All of that with less machines and more human power, as envisioned in the Human Power Plant. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

October

"If we had 30 days to save the world, would we act before the 29th?" Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

September

"For the eye has this strange property: it rests only on beauty; like a butterfly it seeks colour and basks in warmth." Virginia Wolf (1930) in The Essays of Virginia Wolf: volume IX. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC)