MacRitchie Me

My journeys into MacRitchie, Singapore's wild forest, became a journey into my own perception of nature - and the deeper into the wild I went, the stranger everything became.
In an attempt to adapt to the forest and the strange strangers I encountered on my way, I designed new clothes, and soon I became a stranger to myself.

Name That Thing!

"The practice of putting people into boxes and labeling things keeps us from knowing one another and the world as such. In fact that habit separates sister from brother. And totally dissolves the connection allowing us to know we are ONE."
I stumbled upon this statement from "the world wide self development department".

It might be true in some aspects, but when it comes to survival in the world wide wilderness - especially when foraging for wild mushrooms it is crucial to be able to label things:

 friend or foe.  

Airy Thoughts

It's time to sow all the airy thoughts I get, when I am high flying:

...and

then I am off to Sweden to check out other kinds of Allotment Plots.

Natural History no. 13

It's troll time!!

You might ask who cares about trolls these days?
However, trolls are still very much alive in the Scandinavian worldview, and I reckon it applies to many other parts of the world.
In Scandinavia you are taught about trolls from early childhood - as a matter of fact - children grow up with a certain ambiguity about trolls, because on the one hand they are taught about the appearance and lifestyle of trolls etc. and simultaneously on the other hand they are reassuringly told that trolls don't exist in reality.
Luckily kids are generally good at coping with complex statements, so most of them are not traumatized by this ambiguity.

To me trolls represent the blurred borderline between man and nature. However, in today's urban lifestyle "wild" nature has almost vanished and there is no need for a border anymore. Trolls belong to a time when nature seemed mysterious and threatening for man, contrary today where it is more the other way round.

But you can actually do an attempt to approach trolls. Like mystics who are exploring the inner alchemical state of nigredo in absolute darkness, you can do a similar thing: spend a night out ALONE in a deep forest with no artificial light and come back and let me know:
Did you get a glimpse of them??? I am all ears ;-) What if?
Understandably most people don't dare this - it's actually more trembling than you might expect - please check it out for yourself! And many people do not even have the opportunity, because they live too far away from a big forest. We haven't got many big forests left these days.
But one thing is for sure - you can always READ about trolls while you are indulging in a cup of troll tea.
And here is a little tip: If you have danced all night with the most enchanting dance partner and you happen to notice a tail sticking out under your partner's skirt or trousers, then you know for sure that the one you are taken by is a troll. BEWARE! Or should I say CONGRATULATIONS!?
Finally I want to let you know, that trolls can be tamed and trimmed to a certain degree - as long as you do it with love and a twinckle in the eye ;-)

This video-installation by Joss James, Anne Mølleskov and Ingrid Weiss was shown as part of the exhibition Who's that tripping over my Bridge? at Frederiks Bastion, Copenhagen, 2002.