2020 - ongoing / The Poetry of a Silent Tragedy
At the beginning of 2020, I found myself stranded—half by intention and half by the force of circumstances (in reality, by my full intention)—on an island during the notorious events known globally as “The Lockdown.”
In the comfort of a tropical paradise, I gave up my identity as an architect and designer, and got increasingly confused about my place in the world. Through the power of yielding, this confusion gave way to a deeper clarity and focus, purging away the distorting social conditioning at a rapid pace.
What has been unveiled, and continues to be unveiled, has always existed beneath the surface:
- a profound understanding of humanity as part of the larger family of diverse species - animal, vegetable, mineral, that together compose the all-encompassing Nature. Nature is a being, and we are some of her organs, living with the illusion of being her remote managers.
With this understanding, I began to document a close group of artist friends from around the world, with whom I was stranded in this temporarily isolated tropical paradise. A distinctive behavior emerged in this natural safe container: being instead of doing, deep presence with the elements, contemplative movement, and embodied awareness. By gradually stripping away our diverse cultural makeups, we returned to our atavistic roots and consciously became nature. Because we are nature.
However, it didn't take me long to realize that part of the comfort granted to us was in fact the flip side of a darker truth: the loss of biodiversity due to deeply rooted human cultural traditions. According to a 2020 study by WWF, snares pose a greater threat to animals in Southeast Asia than habitat degradation from logging.
In Southeast Asia, our nature immersions are not accompanied by those amazing sounds that give goosebumps—sounds present in biodiversity-rich tropical forests. Songbirds in the region have become the subject of excessive, culturally ingrained consumption for trade, singing competitions, pets, status symbols, export, traditional medicine, and food.
This trade is often illegal and evidently unsustainable, recognized as a primary threat to many species in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, and particularly in southern Thailand.
This trade is often illegal and evidently unsustainable, recognized as a primary threat to many species in Southeast Asia, including Thailand, and particularly in southern Thailand.
Thus, the project reflects the paradoxical reality of a shared, poetic experience: the blissful rewilding of our bodies I and a group of friends underwent on a temporarily isolated tropical island, set against the backdrop of wildlife extinction in the silenced forests of southern Thailand.
*some of the photographs shown here were taken during nature immersions with "Being Nature With Dolores Dewhurst-Marks" .
Photo of me performing a caged being yearning for freedom, by Olivia Pino
