Sandra Cowan + Annie Martin: Kinship with Trees

Kinship with trees: An embodied contemplative walk

With Annie Martin and Sandra Cowan

 

When?

Sunday April 21, 2-3:30

 

Where? Nose Hill Park, Calgary, AB

Meet at the West parking lot of Nose Hill Park (at the intersection of Edgemont Blvd. NW and Shaganappi Trail NW).

 

What to expect?

This is a slow walk of about 2km on groomed trails to visit an aspen grove, where we will lead a series of contemplations exploring our kinship with trees. Please dress for the weather and wear good walking shoes.

Grounded in an understanding of our interrelationship with all beings, this is a contemplative listening walk that will guide participants through an embodied interaction with trees while walking among them. We know that trees communicate through fungal networks and pheromones, and there is an increasing appreciation of their relationships and even their sentience. How can we listen to trees in a way that is open to relationship, to our kinship with them? Can we let go of our extractive and dualistic assumptions in relating to the natural world? As we walk, we will open our awareness to all the creatures, trees, plants and activities of wind, weather and soil around us, and to the interaction and interconnection of all these elements. We, too, are immersed in this web of connections and kinship.

 

About us:

Sandra Cowan and Annie Martin are a collaborative team of walking artists. Our approach to facilitating listening walks grew from the seeds of a practice developed by the Canadian composer Hildegard Westerkamp. In our listening walks, we walk in silence and tune our senses vividly to the world around us.

Sandra Cowan is the Fine Arts librarian at the University of Lethbridge/Iniskim. Her research is about walking as a research methodology for creative work. She also maintains a creative practice in photography, clay, and language, and is an avid pedestrian. 

Annie Martin's art practice traverses diverse media including sound, installation, drawing, painting, textile, performance, video and writing. Her work has been exhibited widely in Canada, and also internationally. Annie lives and works in Lethbridge, Alberta, in the traditional territory of the Sikisikaitsitapi. She has facilitated listening walks as a part of her practice since 2004.