TABBY LI

Nature and Its Vendors
Ecology is the echo
Produced by noise
With which capitalism is destroying the world
Roque Dalton​​

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Nature is a termite mound. It is the bold marks and patterns on a leaf or the wings of a butterfly; the spines on a thistle. It is water eroding rocks over centuries, it is wind howling through igneous rock; it is geological time. Nature's Art is cave painting. Nature might also be the feeling of fresh air and gliding fingers through grass; it might be the feeling of looking far out to sea, or at a rainbow, or walking through a forest thick with trees…

But somehow, we are also part of it. Nature can only be a descriptive term. Nature is also the factories belching out toxic black clouds; the mountainous landfill, it is the way we have developed fractional distillation and produce synthetic textiles and plastics. Nature is also the pit in your stomach when debt collectors bang on your door. Nature is what happens when you return home and a tree you grow up with has been chopped down by the local council. Nature is when large newly built skyscrapers are left empty. Just another investment portfolio for investors.

Nature and Its Vendors takes a moment to meditate that we are where we are now right now, in this moment in history; in this moment in geological time. We are still animals; we are still cave painters. We are open to change and adaptation, working together through and in spite of the relentless, violent course of progress.

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Nima Shafiani