BOWER

a song in the dark by writer and poet Eleanor Penny (The Ecologist, Novara Media) is a poetic and powerful essay in which nightingales and specifically John Keats Ode to a Nightingale are used to explore the overlap of individual grief and climate grief in the context of species collapse and environmental breakdown.

Camille Henrot shares a selection of bird drawings spanning several bodies of work and an essay about her work, motherhood and climate.

Discover the work and life of craftsman François Morel, founder of Quelle Est Elle Company, who makes appeaux: beautiful bird call whistles in the Drôme valley. For issue one we are honoured to have collaborated with Quelle Est Belle Company on a limited number of whistles painted in Japanese Urushi lacquer paint. Discover the range here.

Meet Yuqiao Guo and Amilios Davlantis Lo; husband and wife, machinist and painter, inventor and ice cream artisan, all the while architects. In a conversation together they discuss their inspiration in birds, flight and creative partnership.

Selina Ogilvy shares her experiences of growing up aboard a narrowboat in Camden Lock Market that can trace its history back to Sir Peter Scott, ornithologist largely regarded as the defining figure in modern day wildlife conservation.

Next Kiki Smith’s delightfully detailed works speak to something deep within us all, accompanied by excerpts of a conversation between her and art historian Christopher Lyon for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution where they discuss the role of animals in Kiki’s life as well embracing the process of art making rather than the result.

Jean-Luc Mylayne and his wife Mylène humbled us with their selection of images curated for BOWER magazine. The ethereal images are presented with a poem by Jean-Luc.

Finally Julia Perrella of Hoolees rounds off the issue with a recipe which invites one to be creative with dough.