With Music by Paco Chambi
In 1855 Henri Wadsworth Longfellow wrote “The Song of Hiawatha”, an epic poem about a Native American hero who helps and guides his tribe. It is a story about bravery but also about kindness, tolerance and peace, with environmental wisdom and striking appreciation to the beauty of Nature. Nature and land are not separated and distinct from humans. Nature is something that humans live within and are part of. There is no sense of superiority or ownership.
The Peace Pipe, which is inspired by the Song of Hiawatha, was created as a call for all human to make peace with Nature. It displays alternative worlds where natural elements like trees, flowers, plants, water, snow, glide in and out the pictorial plain, thereby creating a recurrence of motifs in a world with endless possibilities. They aim to suggest a different view of our world and environment and offer a different perception of it, depicting Nature as beautiful as romantic poetry can be.
The peace Pipe was displayed together with the WEST WIND body of work at espace CHUV, 2020.