Mothership
Mothership is an immersive installation that explores the connection between feminine wisdom and nature, and the importance of amplifying the Feminine to create regenerative futures for all. Within modernity that has lost its connection to myths and magic, Gaia has come to symbolize a reverence for nature and ecological consciousness. The piece invites us to experience Earth as a complex being, full of aliveness and mystery. Through a journey across cycles, stories and ancient feminine wisdom, Mothership invites us to reframe our relationship with the living world, and explore the concepts of inter-being, animism, kinship and responsible stewardship.
The primary structure of the piece is a giant bust of Gaia, the primordial Goddess of Earth and ancestral mother of all Life. As a symbol, Gaia represents Earth as a complex living organism, motherhood, the ability to create life, renewal and rebirth. As the personification of the planet, she gives us a focal point, helping us to conceptualize our relationship with the Earth and nature.
Within anthropocentric modernity that has lost its connection to myths and magic, the goddess Gaia has come to symbolize a reverence for nature and environmental consciousness.
To ancient and present-day Earth-honoring cultures, the understanding of the Earth as a living, conscious being is a deep and central part of spirituality. Human and Earth Mother are both deeply honored and sacred: the feminine is revered as a great life-giving power able to conceive, give birth, and nurture children from their womb, similar to the miracle of the Earth Mother who gives birth to all creatures, nurtures the crops in the summer, gives life-sustaining rain, protects the crops during the winter, and brings them back to life again in spring.
Elements
The 4 micro-worlds surrounding the bust of Gaia represent 4 ecosystems and the animal, plant, and mythological beings that inhabit them, associated with the 4 elements: creatures of the field and forests represent the element of Earth, creatures of the desert and grasslands represent Fire, creatures of the oceans, rivers and lakes represent Water, and creatures of the skies represent Air. Each element invites us to connect with its qualities in our own internal realms: Earth connects us with our survival and instinct, our groundedness, sensuality and stability. Fire connects us with our creative life-force, energy and transformation. Water connects us with our emotional worlds and sensitivity. Air connects us with our movement and mental realm. Each micro-world invites us to explore our relationship with the element and ecosystem that it embodies.
Installation Structure
Visitors can enter the heart of Gaia, be replenished and nourished inside of her, climb inside of her hair, wandering through and being a part of her animal and plant realms. They can be immersed in story worlds, both audio and visual. In the midst of the vastness of the desert, Gaia appears to hold its visitors in a warm and loving embrace.
By being a nourishing space for participants, the installation hopes to instill a loving nurturing quality in those who interact with it, that they carry forward into their lives.
This installation is being created with the intention of embodying the intention it stands for, by utilizing sustainably sourced and upcycled materials. Additionally, crystals and sacred objects will be woven into the installation by our community of healing artists.
As people explore the inside of the installation, its walls will serve as a museum of the Feminine, telling diverse stories of the ancient and primal relationship between Earth and Woman, and will invite visitors to embody and practice feminine ways of being, and connect with the power of feminine intelligence.
Within the structure of the scaffolding inside the installation, small rooms and environments will be created to serve as diverse spaces of exploration by female artists in our community, on the themes of the feminine and regeneration.
The installation will sometimes be activated by co-created live performances from our community of artists, poets and musicians, who can offer their nature-inspired pieces to inspire a more regenerative world that honors the Earth and all her beings.
3D Renders
“The Earth is not a dead rock, she is Gaia, a living organism. Thus we do not measure the value of nature in terms of her usefulness to humans, rather we recognize the intrinsic value of nature as the source of life itself.”
— Satish Kumar
The Power of
Feminine Intelligence
Empowering women is one of the most high-impact and cost-effective ways to solve climate change. Scientists, anthropologists and spiritual leaders have increasingly been looking to the past, through women’s spirituality and the power of the female perspective, to find new visions for the future.
Feminine intelligence is a “deep knowing that we are all part of a living universe, an innate sense of responsibility for the survival of human and planetary life. A conscious intention to heal. The concentration of love, energy and life-force, dedicated to someone or something that is of the greatest importance beyond self-interest.” (Karen Downes)
Feminine intelligence can allow us to be responsible guardians of humanity, the planet and all life. Human and planetary healing depends on each one of us—women, men and all people— to reclaim our ancient innate feminine wisdom, individually and collectively, and rise to shape a renewed world, in harmony with all of creation.