Naomi Feigelson

Field research project on wild foraging and analog photography.

“In the east of France, I spent a lot of time at the edge of the 1000 Ponds forest, my eyes diving from the paths into vast stretches of trees. Crossing lands of native species into a pine forest with a Scandinavian atmosphere. At first reassuring and enchanting, it reminded me of the tales my father used to tell me about the spirits living in the mossy landscapes of Hasselö (southern Sweden). These pines, heavily introduced here less than fifty years ago—because they grow within a human lifetime—are now sick. They attract insects, greedy for sap, carving immense wounds into the surface of their trunks. Who is invading whom? As I collected spruce buds to make syrups and ice creams, I closely observed these scars. No insects in sight, as if they were secretly feeding from within, never revealing themselves, sleeping inside. I wanted to photograph the imprint of this friction, visible only on the bark of these still-standing trees, still giving buds. A conflict of interest between tree, human, and insect—perceptible only on the porous surface of what appears inert. Pressing red clay onto the bark, I wondered if the tree and the insect might one day work together to resist these "new invaders"—in a scene that echoes what Feral Atlas* calls the unruly effects of imperial infrastructures, where multispecies worlds entangle and resist through unexpected collaborations.
*Feral Atlas: The More-than-Human Anthropocene est un atlas collaboratif dirigé par Anna Tsing, Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena et Feifei Zhou. ”