London
Selbi Jumayeva, Alisa Verbina, Olha Vinichenko
Steppe Synanthropies: Extant Across Continents
Steppe Synanthropies: Extant Across Continents is a collaborative project, in which we as three Central Eurasian migrant research artists tap into ornithology, computation, folk art, video, and performance art in order to reflect on and connect the routes and narratives of people(s) and birds with habitats and life cycles that span borders, continuing to be extant across continents.
Scientists and pastoralists document those multispecies entanglements in songs and graphs, with needles and sensors. Long-distance movements are illuminated in planetary-scale threads of satellite and cellular signals and intimately stitched into a data tapestry.
However, the intricate interdependence of human and bird species unfolds in the local context. For the critically endangered Sociable Lapwing, for example, the Kazakh Steppe is now the only place it breeds. The bird prefers the short grasses of cattle-grazed pastures for its nests, made possible by nomadic and semi-nomadic herding practices. The near-threatened Northern Lapwing, also a ground-nesting wader and known for its fierce behaviour in defiance of predators and ability to travel long distances, has become a local folklore symbol of courage and willpower in Kazakhstan and Ukraine.
The project weaves together a speculative cartography of multispecies coexistence and our shared climate dignity on the planet.
Translation of Ghazal about lapwings’ migration in the video performance
