Peter von Tiesenhausen

from Peter von Tiesenhausen's The Watchers/Journey

It's been an overwhelming few months in the pipeline world that we're being dragged into here in northwestern BC. Frankly, it wasn't so much the JRP's recommendation that Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline be granted permission to proceed (with over 200 conditions) that overwhelmed me, but rather the plate of spaghetti that constitutes the "plans" for LNG pipelines revealed by a myriad of applications.

It's been our provincial governments touting of LNG as clean energy, even though it is a fossil fuel that has an enormous carbon footprint.

Most particularly it's the knowledge that LNG pipelines = fracking and all that entails: fracking both in ever increasing amounts in the beleaguered northeast, and inevitably (well, not really, I refuse to accept that) into this part of the country.

It's times like this you wonder: what is the point of writing poems, stories, and songs, of creating images and performing acts of wonder, love and encouragement? We're toast, we're hooped, we're fracked.

But then I remembered Peter von Tiesenhausen and cheered right up. He's a visual artist based in northern  Alberta whose work challenges the way in which the fossil fuel industry wreaks havoc on our idea of home: In a review of his work in Canadian Art, Robin Laurence writes: 


The petroleum industry, of course, casts a long shadow across the region. One of von Tiesenhausen’s legal strategies for resisting the industry’s incursions involved making a claim of copyright to the land on which he has installed a number of his environmental sculptures. It’s the land he grew up on, the land that used to belong to his parents, the land on which he and his family live and work.

Laurence goes on to discuss the way von Tiesenhausen creates alternative ways of seeing home: 


As Peter von Tiesenhausen tours me through “Elevations,” his solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Grande Prairie, it is difficult to gauge whether he is more invested in the work on view here or in the new Demmitt Community Centre, an hour’s drive away. The internationally acclaimed environmental artist and activist talks about each—the art that symbolizes a spiritual journey, and the community centre that he has been instrumental in creating—with equal pride, passion, humour and angst. His conversation reveals how his art practice affected the way the community centre was conceived, and vice versa. Some of the images and materials in his mixed-media show, which functions as a mid-life meditation on creative aspiration and the making of meaning, are directly connected to the realization of the building.

Community = the land itself and the creatures that live on it, in it, with it, from it - including people. 

von Tiesenhausen's work includes the evocative The Watchers/Journey and the inspirational Passages. The Watchers consist of a group of charred figures which crossed Canada from 1997-2002, moving from exhibition to exhibition - a spooky and powerful presence wherever they stand. 

 

Passages charts the course of 100 tiny boats filled with earth from 100 different spots between the Bow River's source and Calgary after their release into the river in 2010. 

Seeing images of the hands holding out the tiny boats and letting them fall into the river reminded me of Ali Howard's first leap into the Skeena near its source in the Sacred Headwaters. Art and action bring us together and give us courage. Thanks to all of you who keep our hearts whole while we struggle to slow down the craziness.

The petroleum industry, of course, casts a long shadow across the region. One of von Tiesenhausen’s legal strategies for resisting the industry’s incursions involved making a claim of copyright to the land on which he has installed a number of his environmental sculptures. It’s the land he grew up on, the land that used to belong to his parents, the land on which he and his family live and work. - See more at: http://www.canadianart.ca/reviews/2013/02/06/peter-von-tiesenhausen/#sthash.0mJ9YULL.dpuf

The petroleum industry, of course, casts a long shadow across the region. One of von Tiesenhausen’s legal strategies for resisting the industry’s incursions involved making a claim of copyright to the land on which he has installed a number of his environmental sculptures. It’s the land he grew up on, the land that used to belong to his parents, the land on which he and his family live and work. - See more at: http://www.canadianart.ca/reviews/2013/02/06/peter-von-tiesenhausen/#sthash.0mJ9YULL.dpuf

The petroleum industry, of course, casts a long shadow across the region. One of von Tiesenhausen’s legal strategies for resisting the industry’s incursions involved making a claim of copyright to the land on which he has installed a number of his environmental sculptures. It’s the land he grew up on, the land that used to belong to his parents, the land on which he and his family live and work. - See more at: http://www.canadianart.ca/reviews/2013/02/06/peter-von-tiesenhausen/#sthash.0mJ9YULL.dpuf

We're all in this together - join the National Day of Action

I had a wonderful few days on Gabriola Island this past week as a guest of Save Our Shores Gabriola (SOS) and the Gabriola Friends of the Library. Thanks very much to Kristin Miller for taking such good care of me. (Thanks also to The Writers Union of Canada for funding.)

Six creative souls came to the poetry workshop in the poetry yurt, run by Poetry Gabriola,  set in the trees beside The Commons. 

Photo: Viviann Kuehl

  

The workshop was meant to inspire people to express their anger, frustration, distress about events taking place in the world. We explored some darker themes and then lightened things up by writing limericks – it’s hard to write a limerick without laughing. There won’t be any Nobel Prizes forthcoming (whoopee, Alice Munro) but it was fun.

Photo: Viviann Kuehl

Photo: Viviann Kuehl

I also gave a reading at the library from my novel, The Taste of Ashes, with a focus on the ways in which activism propels and informs my writing. Over time it has become clear that an interest in, concern about and a sense of wanting to bear witness to people’s courage are fundamental issues in the work I admire most. It’s little wonder that those same values and concerns for social justice show up in my writing. 

Photo by Liz Ciocea

And what an audience! The collective knowledge and wisdom in the room was awe-inspiring. One woman had been to Afghanistan with Global Exchange – the amazing group that facilitated my trip to Guatemala when I was researching The Taste of Ashes. 

 

 

The visit ended with an SOS Gabriola dinner meeting – a group of Gabriolans committed to preventing oil pipelines and tankers in BC lands and waters. It was an honor to be a part of their month-long celebration of Art and Activism around the island. All around us hung quilts made for the Clayoquot Sound protests twenty years ago now. 

Bravo to SOS for calling it a celebration – all too often we are taught to think of this work as negative because we’re against what industry likes to call development. Exploitation is a more accurate term. 

As well as sharing a delicious meal, we talked about the ways in which people respond to the dangers posed by our ever-increasing use of fossil fuels. How do we motivate people to act? How do we support and value people who don’t feel able to stand up and speak up? How do we support all the differing ways community members contribute on the ground (creating and maintaining a place like the Commons, for example) and in the oh-so-impure corridors of power (MLAs, MPs, larger environmental organizations, for example)?  As Bill McGibben writes in Oil and Honey, the story of the rise of the 350.org movement, environmental activism is long-term – it’s not something that’s going to get done, like that deer fence you need to build around your garden. Jean McLaren was one of the first Raging Grannies, was arrested at Clayoquot Sound and is still taking part in events in her eighties. She and Heidi Brown shared dinner with us last week; twenty years ago they edited the Raging Granny Songbook.

I was happy to tell the folks from Gabriola that in the north we, too, have people with that long-term commitment. We have young people who are being mentored by those who have been doing this work for over thirty years (with many successes) and those same young people are bringing their amazing talents to the table. 

Eight community groups in eight communities across the north are working with First Nations to stop the Enbridge Gateway pipeline; others are springing up to try to unravel the “plate of spaghetti” of proposed LNG pipeline routes; all are committed to resisting the free-for-all that is both provincial and federal government policy around tar sands, fracking and coal. 

And artists – musicians, visual artists, poets, and dancers – are standing beside scientists, farmers, fisherpeople, and others who are beginning to understand the price tag attached to fossil fuels, tar sands expansion and climate change. Artists are reading scientific reports, carvers are putting up blockades, biologists are making quilts, and poets are running for city council. And fishermen like Guy Johnston will be joining thousands of people across the country on tomorrow's National Day of Action against fossil fuels expansion. 

Find an event and get there if you can.