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Summary

The Milkweed, Latent. The Home, Returned.

Created by Piper Snowber

Performances held at 5:45, 6:30 and 7:15 p.m.

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Developed from the experience of witnessing the loss of my family’s home due to the Mountain Fire, this installation, ritual, and performance initiates a conversation around climate grief, to deepen our connection with the Earth and process the changes that are occurring within it. While acknowledging the devastation that fire has caused, this piece explores the sanctity of fire and challenges our separation from it.

Gently hanging from the ceiling and mounted on walls are textiles with various plants sewn into them. This process reflects the experience of climate grief; a personal attempt to preserve the natural world while also acknowledging the inevitability of its decay. Draped across the ceiling, gauzy fabric and a garland of aloe hung above the heads of the participants. A poem, sewn into a large, circular piece of fabric lay below. The poem explores human’s modern-day relationship to fire, and how we respond to it with violence, fear. Rings of eucalyptus, soil, shells, rotting lemons, oranges, pomegranates, milkweed pods, and candles surrounded it.

To begin the ritual, each participant was prompted to think about something they loved that they lost as they placed a pinch of salt into a basin. The salt served as a container for these tender memories and cleansed the water used for the performance. A piece of fabric embroidered with hundreds of stitches in red, orange, and yellow thread surrounding a ring of milkweed seeds was passed around the circle. Symbolic of life cycles, inspired by fire, and reminiscent of the warmth of my family’s home, the threads were arranged in water-soluble fabric.