Ordinary Gifts

How to fall in love with a river

Visit her often
Take a silent slow walk by her and listen deeply
Watch her eddies and currents in all her moods… lose
yourself in them
Explore old traditions, River Deities, the blessing of bodies
of water, fairies and the crossing of waters
Give her a small gift and dare to feel foolish
Walk to her source
Observe her plants and creatures over four seasons
Notice that all is not well
See her dirty waters and smell their reek
Imagine she has rights just like you
Deeply feel our disrespect… Grieve… then Act !
Join with others, research, join a local rivers group

Ask yourself, How has she changed you ?

Like many people I have been thinking a lot over the past few years about how we can profoundly change the ways we experience and act toward ‘ The Greater Community of Life’ and cultivate a more respectful attitude. The looming threat of climate change adds an urgency but also brings anxiety that I have learned through many years as an activist is not always conductive to creative responses and solutions.
So how do we encourage the kind of relationship with other life forms that allows us to feel joy-full, empowered and willing to take action ?
This project addresses these questions in relation to the Glen River that runs through The Glen River Park a much used and well-loved semi-wild area on the North side of Cork City.

Activities include Water Divining as a tool to reclaim and experience the inherent sensitivity to water as a human ability. A walk with a botanist / herbalist to observe plant life along the banks and water course including the water cleansing abilities of reed beds and Sensory walks focusing on listening and smelling as well as observing. There will be a performative event ‘Tears of the River’ which will highlight pollution at one spot. The project will culminate in a walk to the rivers source for a picnic and sharing of local knowledge and folklore with music and poetry. As the area around the Source was traditionally one for Traveller encampments this would be an important element of this community sharing.

Elinor Rivers has worked as a socially engaged artist with a wide range of groups and organisations largely on Cork City’s north side, for over twenty-five years . This work has ranged from photography projects that deconstructed the medical model of disability through the sharing and discussion of images taken by people with disabilities, to programs that raised awareness of local ecologies through activities that focused participants on micro environments.

She has created several large-scale land-based projects including the Cork Mandala of Community Gardens project, which was commissioned for Cork European Capital of Culture 2005, which she co-managed/facilitated over three years. It’s aim was to seed the concept of community gardens in Cork City and work with communities in urban council housing estates, schools and residential centers to create gardens. More recently she has worked on the PLoT socially engaged art project with Artists Marilyn Lennon and Colette Lewis which explores the uses and ownership of urban land 200 years in the future and investigating the possibilities of Community Land Trusts.

She brings a strong ethos of participatory practice and methodologies to her work and projects that comes in part from having engaged in grass roots social and environmental activism for many years. Over the years of working with groups through art and horticulture she has experimented with the use of sensory ‘art games’ and exercises which increase visual and sensory awareness and sensitivity, often witnessing a profound shift in participants’ perception, understanding and enjoyment of the natural world.

Elinor has also worked as a social, political and environmental activist for many years primarily at a grassroots level often combining this work with her art practice through installations, interventions and DIY publishing.

As an artist who has spent her life experiencing the world through the lens of dyslexia she is interested in exploring Neuro Diversity and states of consciousness in her practice and with other artists.

On this the first session of ‘Ordinary Gifts The River’ I led an introduction to Water Divining using various devices, following a walk with Herbalist and Botanist Jo Goodyear. The aim was to get a good feel for divining, what works for each individual and how it feels in the body leading to a greater sense of our electro magnetic sensitivities and inherent connections with ‘the greater community of life’

Resources for further exploration:

Girl water diviner (1954 ) You Tube

Jack Maloney Irish Diviner Film by artist Michael Fortune

There are countless other excellent and fascinating videos to explore online.