I’ve heard many artists and creators say that when they approach a blank canvas or a block of stone or even a newly tilled vegetable patch, the ‘thing’ that is going to ‘arrive’ and find its home in that space already exists somewhere in what we might agree to call the field of our collective consciousness.
This is one of the ideas – along with the notion that a community can be created, however temporarily, around a piece of art – that our special interview with Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller explores in the Arts & Culture section of this issue, and it is a notion I have held for a long time when it comes to my own writing and even the joint crafting of this magazine.
You can think of it as a bit like making really good sourdough bread. The ‘really good’ bit depends on you getting yourself out of the way and allowing the wild yeasts in the environment to get to work. The more you fuss and primp, the less your finished loaf will taste or look like an authentic sourdough. What is needed for that to happen is for the baker to trust the process enough to allow it to emerge.
And I can definitely say the same for this issue of the magazine, where we explore the thorny topic of climate anxiety – or, to be a little more positive, navigating that anxiety because, as ever, our remit within the pages of this magazine is to encourage each other to keep going by exploring solutions from those who are further along the path, and in this way to keep alive our shared hope for a sustainable and equitable future for all.
We didn’t really go looking for this theme – it simply found us and somehow (with our help) put itself together. One of the earliest articles we received was on the yogic concept of ‘Right Action’ as a pathway to navigate the threat of climate catastrophe, and this piece was submitted by its author, Helen Clay, long before our theme had found us. So thank you to her for opening that gate to the field!
Anyway, take a read and see what you think about all the solutions younger (and award-winning) climate activists are sharing with us on pages 28–41, and also see how the emerging concept of ‘solastalgia’ (which might be new to you as it was to me) lands with you.
Everything we publish and share with you in each issue finds its way onto the pages of the magazine as an invitation for you to explore further at your leisure, and I am delighted to be able to share that the ‘thing’ that is already waiting in the field ready for next time is active hope, which will be the theme of the January/February 2024 issue of the magazine – when we get there!
In the meantime, have an enjoyable festive season/Yuletide, if that is part of your end-of- year honourings, and however you mark the Great Turning, I wish you a very happy New Year.
