CONFERENCE REVIEW: “ECOLOGICAL/EARTH-BASED ARTS THERAPIES: INTERNATIONAL AND MULTI-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
On the eighth and ninth of August, 2020, the conference "Environmental art therapy: international and multicultural perspectives" was held online, reflecting the increasing importance of environmental issues for the creative/expressive arts therapies and their growing connections to the ecological movement, ecotherapy, ecopsychology, ecological education, and environmental art.
EYES AS BIG AS PLATES: A SEARCH FOR MODERN HUMANANITY BELONGING TO NATURE
Eyes as Big as Plates is the ongoing collaborative project between the Finnish-Norwegian artist duo Riitta Ikonen and Karoline Hjorth. Starting out as a play on characters from Nordic folklore, Eyes as Big as Plates has evolved into a continual search for modern humanity belonging to nature. Since 2011 the artist duo has portrayed seniors in Norway, Finland, France, US, UK, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Sweden, South Korea, Czech Republic, Japan, Senegal, Outer Hebrides, Tasmania and Greenland. Each image in the series presents a solitary figure in a landscape, dressed in elements from surroundings. Here nature acts as both content and context: characters literally inhabit the landscape wearing sculptures they create in collaboration with the artists.
MUSIC AT TIMES OF THE ECO-HUMAN CRISIS: CARRIE HERBERT AND ‘THE ALCHEMY OF THERAPEUTIC SONGWRITING‘
At times of crisis, environmental and human challenges and transitions, music is a powerful force that can connect people across borders, touch people’s hearts and build empathy, trust and understanding. Music has an incredible therapeutic power to heal through expression of deep feelings and experiences in the current times of the eco-human crisis. Music is a universal language interwoven in all cultures. It is from this universal heart of music that ‘The Alchemy of Therapeutic Songwriting’ project, initiated by Carrie Herbert, musician and songwriter, was born.
ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY – PERSONAL, PROFESSIONAL AND CREATIVE ACTION
In this review, Gary Nash shares his thoughts on creative artistic and social initiatives of art therapists, who have increasingly become more environmentally active over the past decade at the national and international levels. He is announcing an environmental art exhibition planned for 2022 in London, which will be the creative response of art therapists to the pandemic, the global environmental situation and our changing relationship with the Earth.
TOUCHING NATURE: TOUCHED BY NATURE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY EXHIBITION REVIEW BY STELLA PHIPPS
Stella Phipps shares her perception of TOUCHING NATURE: TOUCHED BY NATURE: AN ENVIRONMENTAL ARTS THERAPY EXHIBITION she attended in north London on last November. The exhibition aimed to raise awareness about environmental arts therapy and the many benefits it can offer artists, expressive/creative arts therapists, and the communities in which we live.