Solastalgia

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Maureen Gruben, “Stitching My Landscape,” 2017

still (courtesy of the artist)

Featuring the work of Christi Belcourt, Lori Blondeau, Gayle Church, Maureen Gruben, Bettina Matzkuhn, Meryl McMaster, Isaac Murdoch & Laura Peturson.

Solastalgia reflects the emotional toll of changing environments. The word combines “solace” and “nostalgia” to describe the melancholia felt due to environmental desolation. Ironically, nostalgia for "home" is also what spurred the alteration of Turtle Island (North America) in the first place. When settlers arrived, they introduced non-native plants and animals to North America in an attempt to make this “new” land feel like the home they left behind.

Studies have shown that there is a link between our environment and our well-being, and that climate change takes a negative toll on it. Especially for those who connect their worldview to their surrounding environment, solastalgia reflects a loss of self that is felt along with the loss of an environment. The arctic has seen immense change due to global warming; ice fields are melting and erosion is happening at a phenomenal rate. In other cases, it has been deliberate, with settlers destroying sacred sites for their own convenience.

Our environment is an interconnected ecosystem of living organisms. Altercation or devastation in one area will inevitably affect the environment as a whole, including the land, water, animals, and insects. Lake of the Woods, historically home to the largest lake sturgeon population in the world, saw the disappearance of the sturgeon due to commercial fisheries and water contamination. Efforts are being made to rejuvenate the sturgeon population, but it is a slow and uncertain process.

While solastalgia is rooted in grief, the artists who consider this feeling in their work do not wallow in anguish, but instead look to the future with resilience and hope. If we are collectively mindful of our environmental footprints and assist in conservation efforts, then generations to come will not long for the landscape of today.