World Environment Day 2021

Web Art Garden

World Environment Day 2021

5th June 2021 theme is Ecosystem Restoration.
Introducing the UN Decade for reviving and protecting our ecosystems.
#GenerationRestoration
#WorldEnvironmentDay

A United Nations Day and vital platform for action every year since 1974
encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment
http://www.worldenvironmentday.global

Over 40 artists across 10 countries participated in

Web Art Garden

World Environment Day 2021

Web Art Garden Parallel Events Worldwide

Listed East to West – Following the Sun

The Art of Sweeping for Inner and Outer Ecosystem Restoration

Tejakula, North Bali, Indonesia

Offering by Diane Butler and Friends of Dharma Nature Time

Masking the Earth

pandemic

masking the face

facing the earth

cosmic breath

Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia

Offering by Ibed Surgana Yuga

A Total Surrender to Nature

Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia

Offering by Agus Ismoyo and Nia Fliam

Our experience during COVID19 has become something unique. We are conscious of an interesting contrast in facing the lessons of a total surrender but living in an era when virtually everything is technological. It is a period where there are challenges in life that are like retail transactions, where face-to-face communication is handled by the tips of our fingers. If we look at the past era that was cosmocentric, where people lived within an intimacy that created a unity with nature, perhaps a total surrender was a normal kind of situation. However, living in the midst of the most current role of technology, we are grateful to be able to feel directly how life that grows with nature is authentic, natural and holistic.

This experience becomes even more important again, because growth and rootedness have been our concept of creative process. This has been the power connecting us with nature and the source of creativity. Now this process becomes a reality and is no longer just a concept or a method which we have used until now. It is as if this experience invites nature to come back into our dialogue, along with technology, and reminds us to be more respectful in carrying out our activities.

We feel that all of our actions that we carry out are a creative process that will create a new visual form. As an example, in our kitchen there is a place for garbage. Every time we cook we always throw the remains in the garbage. If we should forget to throw it away for just one or two days, the garbage will smell and there will be lots of maggots. Who makes it rotten and what makes the maggots appear? Is it nature or is it us or is it time?

The situation forces us to ‘Surrender Totally to Nature’ and is in a time and space that is very valuable as a force in creating a consciousness in the creative process that we have been utilizing. The experience of the COVID pandemic gives us an opportunity to feel, receive and open a consciousness within ourselves towards a harmony in life which is a reality that we must be aware of. In the end, we come to feel this consciousness is important so that we touch upon the power and greatness of nature and our hope for unity with nature in our lives.

Kidung Biyung Bibi

Klaten, Central Java, Indonesia

Offering by Agus Bima Prayitna of Teatr Mantra Gerak

Green Man

Surakarta, Java, Indonesia

Offering by Susana Miranti Kroeber

Green Man in the Garden
 
Green man in the garden
Staring from the tree,
Why do you look so long and hard
Through the pane at me?
 
Your eyes are dark as holly,
Of sycamore your horns,
Your bones are made of elder-branch,
Your teeth are made of thorns.
 
Your hat is made of ivy-leaf,
Of bark your dancing shoes,
And evergreen and green and green
Your jacket and shirt and trews.
 
“Leave your house and leave your land
And throw away the key,
And never look behind,” he creaked,
“And come and live with me.”
 
I bolted up the window,
I bolted up the door,
I drew the blind that I should find
The green man never more.
 
But when I softly turned the stair
As I went up to bed,
I saw the green man standing there.
“Sleep well, my friend,” he said.

By Charles Causley

Membaca sebuah Pagi di Tubaba

Reading a morning in Tubaba.

Uluan Nughik, Tubaba, Tulang Bawang Barat, Lampung, Sumatra, Indonesia

Offering by Alexander Gebe

Transparent Life, Prayer for Human Transformation

Athens, Greece

Offering by Christina Klissiouni

Dawn in the Alps of Fruili

Friuli, Italy

Offering by Franca Fubini

All Here

Later that day I was in the Schlosspark Charlottenburg, in Berlin.

Waterlilies in evening light.

Always reminding me of lotus. They’re not even the same family and do not have the incredible ability to cleanse themselves – but still….

In Berlin, one day long ago, Prapto said to me, ‘We, like the lotus, coming from mud…’

My companion Lole and I, in ‘the John Cage way’, rolled the dice to get the coordinates for a place in Berlin to meet for Web Art Garden. And arrived at the Schlosspark Charlottenburg.

A long time ago too we were at the same lake…

Friends, words and the lotus joining into my movement with the waterlilies.

Berlin, Germany

Offering by Beate Stühm

Mémoire d’Eau

In memory of the great flood of the ‘Gardon’ last September 2020. Change in landscape.

Vallée française – Le salt – France

Offering by Sylvie Gimmig

Finding New Sweet Homes in the Woods

We need to start finding our way back to the forests, making friends with the trees and the flowers, talking with the crickets and the spiders to feel close to the Ecosystem, to feel its vitality, its heartbeat, its wisdom.

Only by getting close enough will we be able to love it and restore it, return our gratitude to it, in forms of home or movement, by feeling one.

Barcelona, Spain

Offering by Montse Marti Gasch

Saltmarsh

Cambridge, UK

Offering by Ditty Dokter

Yew Tree

yew to lean against to feel held by to sense and be sensed by

this year so disturbing for us humans

you have seen all of this passing by for 700 years and more

my 72 years are nothing i know nothing

i’ve come to ground and lose myself at your roots

connecting earth and sky

lend me your shelter your strength your breath

teach me let me understand awe

the preciousness of life of earth of nourishing – of sky too

the silent knowing of surrender humility love

being

gratitude to the yew tree on the path

Hammer Woods, West Sussex, UK

Offering by Sister Cittapala

In memory of my grandmother from Latvia who taught me how trees can help us to connect with something that is closer and bigger than what we can think of.

Resting in Grandfather Tree

Living Measurement

River Avon, Warwick, UK

Offering by Una Nicholson and Vern

Avebury

In Avebury for the afternoon of World Environment Day to remember the tenth anniversary of one of many workshops that Suryadamo Suprapto conducted there over the years – the one in 2011 documented by Helen Edwards.

Avebury, UK

Offering by Simon Slidders and Julian Carlyon

Is every pilgrimage, however straight the line, 
a labyrinth turning us inwards?
Coming into Avebury, just the sense of trying 
to find a place to land, 
In the place and in my memories. 
Rushing forward to find the past 
Only gradually settling to allow 
the present people to pass by.
The stones like horses' heads 
waiting patiently to be stroked, 
Acknowledging us only with their breath,
but not their eyes which are cast down, 
as they cast our eyes up to the blue skies above.
We are lucky to be here.

By Simon Slidders

Here and Now at the Palm Temple

Here and Now at the Palm Temple (in the garden at Radstock Cloister), Bristol University Chemistry department.

The Palm Temple is a dome, bifurcated and turned upside-down then set on the ground with its edges touching to form a new space – enclosing, holding.

It is made of colour, translucence and mirroring. All angle and reflection. Multiple facets. A jewel radiating, radiant, playing with rays.

The tale of its emergence is extraordinary. One of three women finding a garden, moving there, creating a sacred space in the early days of lockdown. Setting the stage for the temple to arrive. Midwives. I sat with this. Contemplated. Retracing. Re-membering. Past and distant connections and coming back to the Here and Now. I moved in the space.

Bristol, UK

Offering by Rachel Ballin

Dreams with Bracken and Wild Horses

A herd of Exmoor ponies was introduced on Black Down, a small piece of moorland at the highest point of the Mendips, with views over to Wales, across the estuary.

The horses were over by a group of willow trees. I lay down under a tree in the soft, dry earth. A bird sang a beautiful cadence of 7 or 8 descending notes, right above my head, and I relaxed, receiving the song and the presence of the horses. I felt their solid energy pulling me down into the ground. They started to move off and I followed them to another clump of willows, where they plunged right into the trees, chewing the bark and rubbing against the branches. I came close to them, feeling animal nature and also my two-footedness.

We played in actor and audience. When I was actor the horses were curious and came closer. I loved moving as they watched. Then I tried to take some photos, and they got bored and wandered off, forming a big, wide semicircle at the horizon, while I made a little offering mandala out of dung, earth and bracken, feeling grateful to the horse and the place.

Black Down, Mendips, Somerset, UK

Offering by Penny Stirling

Watercoursing

Over many millennia the River Char and its streams have been draining and shaping a network of valleys which open to the sea at Charmouth. For World Environment Day, we moved from river to seashore and clifftop.

Charmouth, Dorset, UK

Offering by Keith Miller and Kristina Bourdillon

Watercoursing

       Ah Power that swirls us together...
                Gary Snyder, 'Gatha for All Threatened Beings'


River   stream   runnel   ditch   rain  drop   trickle 
Waterbody moving,      
             watercoursing                       
like a tree branching through the land, 
      veins of a leaf      a spread hand, 
            airways of our mammal lungs, 
fungal mycelium thread
      spreading    
            through wood and soil. 

Rock and gravel streambed    thirsty roots    
      soft  green shade   birdsong,

Watercourse breathing 

River mouth spilling onto seashore,
Stone and clay cliffs slump    and slide 
      into the beach, 
Dark rocks left by Jurassic seas 200 million years ago 
      now washed again by the sea, 

Different sea, 
      Same water. 
   
Ancestor ammonite    born swimming in the warm Jurassic
      now pauses crystalline in the soft rock 
and sings with the sea 

Waiting, not waiting

Same water
     Different sea.

Ecosystems flowing    merging     meshing
     shape shifting in creation,
 
We too in these swirling ecosystem constellations
     breathing     
             moving    minds and bodies, 
ecosystem in ecosystem
      shaping  and being shaped,
re-membering  
re-storying 
re-viving connection

-----   

And now
here -  
     this flickering screen -  
You and we 
     reach   in 
            hand and eye    
     thread 
fresh pathways 
     spreading   connecting   in 
            eco web dancing


By Keith Miller

Reflections on Journeying from Southport to Charmouth these Last Ten Years

One garden in the North West,

another in the South West:

coast to coast,

layer upon layer.

A car drives past.

A lathe grinds.

Birds hush.

Bee pollinates.

Crockery clatters.

Then footsteps and a

Shakuhachi flute.

Southport, Merseyside, and Charmouth, Dorset, UK

Offering by Carran Waterfield

Sun and Moon

Zen calligraphy brushed on the morning of World Environment Day 2021.

Clodock, Herefordshire, UK

Offering by Stephen Hopkins and Isabel Moros

Listening and Offering to the Forest

Listening and Offering to the Forest.

Remembering and appreciating being an inter-connected member

Holne Wood, Buckfastleigh, Devon, UK

Offering by Daniela Coronelli and Roy Whenary

Moving in Holne Woods

At the entrance of Holne Woods
leaving behind the sound of car engines
and head-voices, too crowded to trust.
Opening to the forest’s whispers and costumes
of many shades of green and brown.
Embraced by the melodies of wrens,
gold finches and robins, while the River
Dart murmurs softly in the distance.

On and off the trodden path
we are walking in quietness, you and I.
Skin, breath and soul gradually
adapting to the uplifting smells
and the slow rhythms of the old forest.
Grass, crunchy leaves, multi-shaped
plants and fading bluebells soften the impact of
our steps through the woodland tapestry.

Today the forest is again our home and temple, as
we celebrate World Environment Day, after many
months of post-pandemic isolation and limitations.
Walking deeper into the woods, the space widens and the
river flows faster, around and below the large granite rocks.
From the sky cascading light ribbons intersect the branches
of chestnut and oak and beech and holly trees,
wearing ancient patterns and textures of bark
….. some wearing furry moss.

Here being guided to stop and open to the space
marked by a fallen tree, a large mother beech
and the singing river. Sensing connection everywhere.
The wind scent, the dying tree crumbling
and feeding the ground where healing herbs
like nettles and comfrey grow;
the half-fallen tree branch with pale green leaves,
being uplifted by a sister tree.
Moving, receiving ourselves and this space, sensing
the texture of ground under the feet
giving support and guidance.
River mist cleanses the skin and the heart.

Moving sculptures, interweaving gestures of bowing,
gratitude and wonderment, while you take
pictures of today’s offering: apple, nuts and seeds
placed on the spine of a dead tree for the
joy of squirrels, birds, insects and unknown spirits
guarding this forest.

Here in this wooded eco-system, sharing breath
with the trees and the animals,
a sense of balance and belonging
that livens and inspires.

By Daniela Coronelli

Sea Loch

The shore consists of rocky outcrops, inlets and sandy beaches, islands and islets and just cries out to be explored. The structure of the rock forms a series of large or small glens and corries which lie in the same direction. From Corrbhan Mor the highest point down to Loch Caolisport, the beauty of each step is a sheer delight, every breath a new world and each moment sounding the light density of sky and rock and sea and atmosphere of place. I move between sky, rock and sea for an hour in the morning and evening, an ever changing vista depending on light and weather. At the Point of Knap the Sound of Jura opens. The joy of becoming ocean with seals arises, in sight of the Isle of Jura.

The peninsular is designated a site of special scientific interest due to the quantity and diversity of mosses and lichen.

Argyll, Scotland, UK

Offering by Helen Edwards

Moving Together in Ireland

Here in West Cork, Ireland, we moved with themes; including grounding, sensing and relating. Our group was Ben Townsend, Dan Grey, Claire Osborne, Hazel Newton, Cass Davies, Katja Machleidt, Mary Flynn, Clair Lalor.

We moved together to open and receive, then in two groups. Later we talked about our visions for the future of our planet and our environment.

Then we created a ritual to embody what arose. This co-created word collage is our reflections on the day.

Cork, Ireland

Offering by Claire Osbourne and Friends

Imagine!!
it's earth day...
‘what if....?’
it’s earth day and it’s the birthday
of your future self
visiting you and seeing you
and thanking you
for the dreams you’re having
and the moves you’re making today.
remember, as space is unbounded so is your imagination and earth is your playground

Forever young

Footsteps in the sky
Little wings among the grass
The birds
Hovering above
Listening to our song
Of hearts and feet
Dancing

Peace descending
Upon all of us
Awe and awe and awe
At the silence
That sinks in
Like mead of the gods
Honey of the wild bees
Of Tir na nOg
Where is the world
I would love to live in?
Here
Among us
In the beautiful hearts
That dare to dream

The oak tree
And the foxglove
Teach us
How it feels like
Tir na nOg is
At our fingertips
It is the world within the world
Let's step into it
Now

Moving among the trees
sensing an expansive depth in the ground
a quality of space at once a togetherness
And each in its own
I touch and feel moved
I feel moved and am touched

Grandfather tree,
Shedding shade for sheltering humans
And Buddha.
Echoes of childhood, calls me to its highest branches,
yet these feet stay earthbound.
Prayer, gratitude, body remembers. Safety.
Prayers for future trees.