The Interconnectedness of our Environment
- Angela Sanford
- 3 hours ago
- 3 min read
by Raegan Densmore
A professor of mine assigned us the task of going to the Art Gallery of Ontario to find certain paintings and to just look at them. Not to snap a quick picture and leave, but to stand there and stare, even if it's for 20 minutes. To let the paintings consume us, and figure out how to make sense of it. What do we see? How does it make us feel? What meaning can we create from it? Coincidentally, I went to the art gallery that same week, and there I saw these paintings, one of which was The Wisdom of the Universe by Michif Otipemisiwak artist Christi Belcourt. It is a painting with illuminating colour like string lights in the night sky, completed by hundreds of thousands of singular dots. A technique highly impressive, especially with the symmetry this artwork displays. When I looked at this painting, I noticed all of the different types of flowers, leaves, animals and insects, and how they are all attached to branches that grow from the roots at the bottom center of the painting. While there is a lot here visually, it is not chaotic, but rather, united, beautifully, like a mosaic. There is so much, yet it is all connected.
“The planet already contains all the wisdom of the universe, as do you and I. It has the ability to recover built into its DNA and we have the ability to change what we are doing so this can happen. Perhaps it's time to place the rights of Mother Earth ahead of the rights to Mother Earth” - Christ Belcourt.
This was the caption displayed next to the painting. When I read it, I felt a wave of feeling come over me and I immediately thought, “this is really beautiful”. Everything we need is already on the planet, on this Earth. It has so much to offer us and we take it for granted. Belcourt encourages us to abandon the unsustainable path that humanity has been going down, expressing in her painting Indigenous philosophies of interconnectedness, biodiversity, and caring. This artwork features plants and animals that are listed as endangered, threatened, or extinct, some of which include the Spring Blue-eyed Mary, the Karner Blue Butterfly, and the Dwarf Lake Iris. The branches that connect them create an ecosystem, and symbolizes risk and loss, while also displaying the interconnectedness of all of these things in nature. Belcourt says that all things in nature, the species, the lands, and the waters, is an organism that pulsates like one beating heart. Belcourt is not just an artist, but an activist as well. Known for her environmentalist as well as an advocator for the lands and waters of Indigenous peoples, also often hosting retreats, workshops and gatherings for Indigenous communities. To her, her art, her beliefs, and what she speaks out about is all one.
The dots that form this piece were referenced by Belcourt from the Anishinaabe and Metis beading traditions, which reflect the beauty of their homeland and the Earth as the environment we live in. These artworks are done with glass seed beads often in floral patterns and are featured upon things such as bags and shoes. These designs are also commonly done symmetrically, and emphasize balance and harmony as well. This artistry reflects Metis culture, and place in the world, which inspired Belcourt in her artwork. Promoting not only beauty in her painting, but meaning and deep activism, encouraging us to understand our place in the world, and to recognize that everything we need is here already, given to us by Mother Nature.
As you look at the tiny dots and each detail of this painting, you can see how all these little things make up something so beautiful. That is what Christ Belcourt intends. Everything in nature is precious, and each one is connected. Take a step into nature and look closely at it, just like Christi Belcourt had done. You will notice all sorts of planets, how they find their roots in the ground, how insects often reside on them or nurture from them, as do animals as well, and as we do. It is then that you will begin to really notice how everything is interconnected. This has been reflected in Indigenous cultures for a very long time, and magnificent artworks such as The Wisdom of the Universe do an amazing job at displaying it to us.
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