e167 barbara cuerden - tending the garden of art

• The garden doesn't have to be something that's instrumental. It can be just a place where you sit, where you're thinking of growing something, you know, where the sun shines and where photosynthesis takes place and everything is sort of manifested through the sunlight and the water. It's a fantastic thing on its own without actually having to produce a lot of stuff.

Replace 'garden' with 'art'.

Barbara Cuerden is a neighbour in the Sandy Hill neighbourhood of Ottawa, a colleague in ecological art and a family friend. 

Barbara completed a Masters degree in ecoliteracy and place-based education in 2010 and is also a professional back-of-the-book indexer among other things. 

Overall, her artworks and her way of life, I think, reflect local particularities of place and time

When I asked Barbara to be a guest on the conscient podcast she wrote to me with this thought, that I think you’ll appreciate:

• The solution is nature, which is still out there, in the world outside of our heads. We belong to it. A feeling of connection with the air, the light, the green, the animals, that feeling of connection most of us felt naturally as children... That connection can be found again (and again) and like you say, it can be accessible if we allow for it to take hold of us.

We talked about many connections and points of contact during our conversation, concluding, not surprisingly, that we would all be well served to pay more attention to local particularities of place and time.

There were some very poignant moments during our exchange, which you’ll hear. For example, when Barbara told me a story about

• A little seminar where John K. Grande was speaking. I considered myself an eco-artist until I heard him speak about the meaninglessness of spectacle. Reading his stuff changed my life and thus I became a non-entity.

I was struck by this idea of being a non-entity. Barbara’s story reminded me of conscient episode e74 letting go where I talk about ‘the main barrier to my re-education is… ‘me’, and that the solution, simply, is to let it go…’. 

So this episode explores the dichotomy between connection and letting go and the tightrope between being present and being a non-entity. 

Barbara’s recommended reading is Jenny Odell’s Reading the Rocks in Emergence magazine. 

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Note: Links mentioned during the conversation:

• Regeneration Hoodoo (click on ‘installation’)
• Stephen Lewis (Canadian politician)
• e161 alchemize - a conversation with kamea chayne (special episode about a 40 part course)
• What can an individual do? (claude’s newsletter posting where Barbara commented about Bill McKibben’s question)

Exact wording of quotes in the episode:

• Instead of the dying light of Western civilization, why not a swinging hoodoo cloud? - Ishamel Reed
• During the Vietnam War... every respectable artist in this country was against the war. It was like a laser beam. We were all aimed in the same direction. The power of this weapon turns out to be that of a custard pie dropped from a stepladder six feet high. - Kurt Vonnegut
• The effects of modern-day media have led us to generalize and simplify nature, as we do all things. We read experience in an informational way. - John K. Grande

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END NOTES FOR ALL EPISODES

Note : I'm currently 'pressing pause' and am not producing new content until further notice. 

Hey conscient listeners, 

I’ve been producing the conscient podcast as a learning and unlearning journey since May 2020. It’s my way to give back.

This Indigenous Land Acknowledgement statement was developed by members of the Algonquin community for my former employer the Canada Council for the Arts. I have adapted slightly to make it my own.

• I acknowledge that my studio, located in Ottawa, is on the unceded, unsurrendered Territory of the Anishinaabe Algonquin Nation whose presence here reaches back to time immemorial.
• I recognize the Algonquins as the customary keepers and defenders of the Ottawa River Watershed and its tributaries. I honour their long history of welcoming many Nations to this beautiful territory and uphold and uplift the voice and values of our Host Nation.
• Further, I offer my respect and affirm the inherent and Treaty Rights of all Indigenous Peoples across this land and honour commitments to self-determination and sovereignty that have been made to Indigenous Nations and Peoples.
• I acknowledge the historical oppression of lands, cultures and the original Peoples in what we now know as Canada and fervently believe the Arts contribute to the healing and decolonizing journey we all share together

In parallel with the production of the conscient podcast and its francophone counterpart, balado conscient, I I publish a free ‘a calm presence' monthly Substack see https://acalmpresence.substack.com.  

Your feedback is always welcome at claude [at] conscient [dot] ca and/or on social media: Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, Threads, BlueSky, Mastodon, Tik Tok, YouTube and Substack.

Share what you like, etc

I am grateful and accountable to the earth and the human labour that provided me with the privilege of producing this podcast, including the toxic materials and extractive processes behind the computers, recorders, transportation systems and infrastructure that made this production possible. 

Thanks for listening. 

Claude Schryer

Latest update on March 21, 2026