Thrilled to get this beautiful invite to The Art of Gathering, the next exhibition I’m taking part in at the @newcraftsmangallery in St.Ives opening on the 14th of September. I’ll be giving an artists talk about my work on the 19th as part of the St.Ives festival and showing my jewellery alongside my objects for the first time. Really looking forward to the show. #exhibition #newcraftsmangallery #stivescornwall #gathering #collecting #contemporarycraft #making #appliedart #silversmithing #jewellery #craft #landscape #oftheland #gathered #gather #collecting #materiallanguage #materiality #landscapeart #languageoflandscape #senseofplace #poetics #stuartcairns #artist #maker #smith #contemporaryart #irishartist #irishart #contemporaryirishart https://www.instagram.com/p/B1oRUQ6ABC2/?igshid=41c3bwvgv0ps
#WhoWasCrispusAttucks Although they call him Black, we know that black is not a nation. #CrispusAttucks was actually born of the Wampanoag (as his mother was of the tribe) and he was the first person killed in the #AmericanRevolution at the age of 47 (11). #Autochthonous #Indigenous #Aboriginal #OfTheLand #WeBeenHere
Spade sketch- looking at older, larger drawings of horticultural tools for an upcoming commission. Something I’ve always felt strongly connected to as I worked as a gardener through and after college, as well as watching my grandfather tend his garden. (I have some of his tools). #spade #drawning #sketch #tools #tooldrawing #horticulture #gardentools #inkdrawing #delicate #minimaldrawing #commission #markmaking #earthtones #colour #dig #gardening #gardenlife #irishspade #oftheland #landscape #traces #paintingcommission #thiscreativelife #process #visualart #contemporaryirishart #contemporaryirishartist #stuartcairns #artist https://www.instagram.com/p/By0o6oJgkx1/?igshid=zw7a107a6r60
A short RP segment to get Silver reconsidering his original plans besides his constant lazing about at the Rocket HQ, given after the events of my plot for him. This was collabed with @of-the-land, who as far as Gio’s goes, has the best rapport with this grump given their development. A lot of this can be found in his ABOUT page on his blog, but this boy obviously has a lot of internal struggles to come to terms with.
If you’re aware of the Route 22 event in HGSS you’ll be pretty well aquainted with the relationship strain and context.
I’m keeping it at the original format from Discord, for documenting!
Silver: Coming down the stairs in the living quarters from his bedroom to the kitchen, in usual teen fashion he's rummaging through the fridge for a snack, and has wireless headphones on that is used for gaming.
Giovanni: It was one of those days that Giovanni was in the private quarters of the HQ. Most of it was spent in his home office section, working, knowing that he was less likely to be interrupted here than at his usual office. Lucido the Persian was sitting in the doorway to the office, noticed the noises from the kitchen, and got up to investigate. This got Giovanni's attention. He figured it was about time for a break anyways and got up as well, carrying his empty coffee cup with him.
"Hm, hello Silver." No surprise it was his son he found in the kitchen. "What are you up to today?"
Silver: The teen gives a bit of a shrug. "Just the usual." These days he's had more of better standing with his old man, though sometimes for him it could feel a bit strange and awkward for them both. Though as time has gone on, the redhead could even say that he reacts less standoffish to the man than he used to upon approach. Something inside of him feels more... neutral, which in an of itself can be strange.
Giovanni: "'The usual.'" Gio echoed as he rinsed out his coffee cup. What was the usual now that they had started to make amends? Teenager things, he supposed. The boy mostly kept to his room, venturing out for food or even to spend time with his parents when they were relaxing together, or spent time with his friend (friends?) that he had made with those who worked at HQ. Gio was grateful for that, that he had begun to repair the family he had broken apart. Still... something was off that didn't quite sit well with him.
Giovanni set about making himself a mug of tea instead of reaching for more coffee. The time spent waiting for the water to boil in the kettle allowed him to linger in the kitchen to talk to Silver. That was another thing that was starting to get easier, though again there were subjects he hadn't breeched. However, the thoughts were on his mind and while it was likely going to upset Silver, Giovanni felt the need to bring it up anyways.
"Are you happy with, 'the usual?'"
Silver: "I don't think much about it." The redhead glances over a bit when he notices that the man is perhaps standing there for a bit longer than he usually would in his peripheral, tea makes sense...enough. However he mentally narrows ever so slightly, there's a-- tone about it that causes him to feel a bit of a shift. Gio's size and stature perhaps makes it appear more imposing...his dad has always been a man with presence under his belt. Even he cannot deny that it causes a bit of uneasiness like it would to any underling beneath him at times.
"That sounds a little existential..." a bit of sass cannot help but escape him, but there's a humored smirk despite the tone all the same.
Giovanni: He responded with a smirk of his own and a quiet "heh" of a laugh at being called out. Giovanni was a man who tended to be cryptic when he spoke. The air of mystery and intimidation worked wonders on his underlings. But now that his son had called it out for what it was Gio could drop the pretense and be more open about what he was getting at.
"That's because it is." He said to give Silver a small warning. There was a pause as Giovanni gathered his thoughts of how to broach the subject. "You know. When I came back and found you here, I was expecting you to be more... 'with all guns blazing.'"
For a while after his return it seemed to Gio that Silver was fiery and cross with him. Then after their heart-to-heart on Silver's birthday that fire wasn't there anymore. On the one hand it was a relief, but on the other it became a point of concern to Gio. What happened to that promise to become stronger than him?
"...Considering the terms we parted on previously."
Silver: Something in his shoulders starts to get a bit tense as he stands over the open door of the fridge, his back is facing him, and after a few moments he closes the door to it not even bothering to grab anything to eat. Slowly he looks over his shoulder to him. Perhaps in an ironic twist, being called out for fizzling out in ire causes the redhead to smolder just a bit.
"Guess it just died somewhere or something." the tone was rather blunt, cold, and almost unafflicted by his own words. He pulls the headphones off his ears and wraps them around his neck as he turns to face his father to look at him with a more deadpanned expression.
Giovanni: Ah yes, that was a reaction he was expecting. This was not something Silver wanted to talk about, but Giovanni wasn't going to relent. This was important. To Gio this was more about the boy's future than that he said in the past.
"It feels to me that a part of you that shouldn't have died went along with it." Again a pause as Giovanni needed to pick his words carefully. He turned his back to Silver so as not to stare the boy down and busied himself with prepping his mug for tea.
"You made a vow to me that you would become stronger. While you don't need to prove yourself to me... I wonder where that drive went? What is your goal now?"
Silver: The boy's shoulders only started raising themselves higher once Giovanni turned his back on him, his fingers were close to clenching tightly into fists, but for now instead they just flexed as he tried to keep his cool.
"Yeah well...maybe sometimes you can go into something thinking it's gonna work out...and then it just doesn't." Silver snorted. Then for himself, there was a moment of silence before he muttered in a more grim fashion. "It's not like everyone can cut it as a Pokemon Master..."
Giovanni: He was glad he turned his back to Silver so that his son could not see the grim look on Giovanni's face when he heard that news. Perhaps Silver would still catch it from the slump of his shoulders. It was one thing to assume that's what happened, but another to hear it straight from him. Giovanni was... disappointed? Saddened? Both. That Silver failed to accomplish what he set out to do.
The kettle whistled and Giovanni pulled it off the stove after he turned off the flame. He poured the steamy water into his mug and waited for the tea to steep.
Had not Giovanni faced the same? He too had failed. With his ambitious set too high and his drive too aggressive eventually he was met with failure. He was forced to fold, and so too now his son.
"You're right. It is a long and arduous journey that takes many years to cultivate. Not everyone can make it as a Pokemon Master. Still..." Giovanni turned back around, his posture corrected itself, and he looked back at Silver. "When faced with failure, that doesn't have to be the end of everything. You have a choice to make. Get up and try again. Turn your sights onto a new goal. Or wallow in your self pity forever."
Silver: The redhead only grew more flustered and peeved as he stared at his father dead in the eyes when the man himself had calmly stared down at him with those words. Silently he was seething, but after a few moments he quickly lost the will to fight with glaring alone and his gaze lowered itself more to the floor. "......."
"......." At first his grumblings come in rather low before they come in a little louder. "I just don't know if I'd be very good at it. Some people either have it or they don't. I just don't know if I'm one of the people who does."
Silver shrugs his shoulders a little, but it's a half-hearted attempt at his usual attempts of being cool and dismissive.
Giovanni: This would not do to let his son fizzle out in self doubt. The boy had too much untapped potential and Giovanni was not going to let him waste it. No son of his was going to simply do nothing because he didn't know what he wanted.
"Staying cooped up in a hidden base doesn't sound like a good way to find out if that's the case."
Giovanni smirked, a glint in his eyes as he was about to say something he was sure Silver would balk at.
"Unless you wish to find that out in Team Rocket, and take your place beside me as its heir."
Silver: The protests were real as he scowled and crosses his arms rather tightly up against his chest, he's starting to visibly pout and look red in the face over a remark by that. Though perhaps...in some ways he doesn't quite react as strongly as one would think he would.
Realistically speaking he knows he's been groomed with this lifestyle from the start, in many ways the HQ is all he knows. Intelligence, wealth, lies, deceit...morally questionable motives, but not all of it is quite as black and white as he wished it to be. He's a misfit like the rest of them, he doesn't know what it means to function normally in a lawful world. Maybe it wouldn't surprise him if one day he stepped up and took the place of his Father...though if he had the means he'd do things much different.
"Yeah well...the Interpol probably have a profile set on me anyway." Silver smirks a bit at in his own dark amusement and he shrugs more casually. "I always loop may way back around here at some point...so who knows." But he pauses, maybe the words start to sink a little, he can't expect to learn more here than what he already knows....could he? Confliction starts to show on his face more, this was a lot to think about.
Giovanni: "I wouldn't be surprised. Considering how much they're looking to find me. I'm sure you can frustrate their efforts by living your own life and giving them nothing to work with. Silver..."
Again it was best to get to the point.
"You may loop back here eventually, but that doesn't mean staying here all the time. You should consider heading back out again."
Silver: The boy's lips purse in a bit of an uncertain fashion, he was afraid of that answer, Gio was very well at being direct and to the point, as well as cryptic...and his more flustered nature started to creep in, which in turn was quickly overshadowed by a growing sense of frustration. "I don't know how..."
The anger starts to build, mix which his heightened degrees of guilt and fear. The criticism of one of the great Dragon master's was too much, Ethan and Lyra...they understood something that he still can't get about Pokemon Training. His dad is a Master...Red is one too...what do they have that he doesn't get? What is it that he's not getting!?
Giovanni: "'Don't know how?'" He repeated as he raised a brow. "It's not as if you haven't before. You're in a better position to do so now."
Before, Silver left on his journey alone after he ran away from Giovanni. Now, both of his parents could provide Silver with support as needed. Gio didn't know what trials Silver faced during that time that caused him to turn out this way, but at the very least he had the opportunity now to help his son.
"Your mother and I will only be a call away to give you advice or assistance. It'll be more..." There was a pause as Giovanni realized the words that were about to come out of his mouth. A sad realization at what could have been. "It'll be more as it should have been. A second chance."
Silver: The boy only blushes and starts to grumble. He's forgotten where to start....what to do, who even is Silver anymore? He squints at the door of the fridge as his body faces his father, as he's considering his options, weighing the truths. The reality starts to sink in...
Though as much as he won't admit it, there's a wash of relief that perhaps he could be offered more support this time around...?-- Pathetic. An inner voice scoffs at him, the old and familiar voice. When did you start getting so soft? What's wrong with you? Weak!
"........I'll have to think about it." Silver mutters as he realizes he's no longer hungry and goes upstairs back to his room. One can just hear the angry stomping of a grump going up the stairs, yet he doesn't slam his door like you would come to know.
Giovanni: That went as well as it could have. No yelling this time. That was certainly a positive thing to note. Giovanni turned back to his mug of tea and finished fixing it up before he took a contemplative sip. He could tell from his son's reaction that there was more that was left unsaid. Unfortunately he couldn't do anything about it unless Silver opened up to him. An unlikely thing even if they were on better terms these days.
Giovanni let out a sigh he was holding in. Hopefully Silver would speak to someone else, Ariana or one of his friends, and work past whatever it was that was holding his son back.
For the past few weeks I have been drinking a delicious coffee from Colombia. Each sip of this filter coffee reminds me of the unrelenting efforts involved in achieving this cup. It has an unmistakable full body and crisp acidity, and every sip takes me straight back to the land, but the scene in front of me is worlds away. I have an emotional connection to this coffee, but the consumers near me enjoying their lattes and cold brews in the spring sunshine do not. Their value isn’t tied to the flavours of a geographic location, but to the coffee’s stimulating properties.
Why is this? Most consumers don’t have a discerning relationship with coffee like they do with wine. They will walk into a local bottle shop and have some idea of what different varietals of grape will taste like, or even prefer one regional Australian wine over another, such as Clare Valley over the Barossa, or the Hunter Valley over Margaret River. The may even know what variety these regions are famous for.
WHAT IS TERROIR?
The flavours of an agricultural product are the consequence of climate, altitude, and soil.
Some Western producers label this combination as “taste of place”, but the French call it “terroir”. To them, it means more than just the flavours of the land, but a concept that’s fundamental to food culture. The pleasure from these flavours signifies a desirable, valuable good, not a disposable commodity. In order to preserve provincial flavours, the French government invested in a certification called the Appellation d’origine contrôlée. For its wine, producers must respect regional constraints of certain varietals and follow specific processing methods in order to attain this certification. This creates a signature flavour of a region, preserves tradition, maintains quality standards, and creates a value around a product that is directly linked to its place of origin.
Mike Eggert, Chef and Partner of Pinbone in Sydney, says consumers need to appreciate that terroir is the “diary of a farmer”.
“It’s an honest, unedited, uncensored expression of what [farmers] have
lived through for the last week, month, season, or year, and it’s delivered to the consumer through sight, smell, touch, sound, and taste,”
Mike says,
“I personally don’t think you can call something terroir if you manipulate or alter it from its natural state. To truly experience and express terroir, you must have a hands-off approach. Agriculture that uses aquaculture to substitute rainfall, herbicides and pesticides, or fertilisers, is creating a false economy and anything taken and shown from that earth is so far from terroir, it’s more like Ikea.”
Coffee producer Miguel Fajardo Mendoza from Raw Material Colombia describes terroir as the place he grows his coffee: the altitude, the microclimate, and the soil.
“These three variables, along with shade, help develop any kind of flavours from the land into the cup,” he says.
Miguel notes that the post-harvest process is crucial to showcasing these three terroir attributes in the cup and that bad post-harvest management could ruin all the flavour attributed to terroir. He adds that Colombia’s coffee farming history is crucial to the region’s successful production it shares today.
“Fifty years ago, coffee was planted under shade and no chemical herbicides were used. This meant significant micro- organism activity in the soil, and a layer of mulch to provide the needed humidity for this to happen,” Miguel says. “To respect terroir, quality producers need to embed the micro and macro elements into the coffee cherry by farming at higher elevation and in cooler climates in order for coffee cherries to develop slowly - this is what helps fix all of these elements into the seed.”
THE PROBLEM WITH PRODUCTION
Promoting terroir has been successful in many food industries including French wine and cheese and Canadian maple syrup. However, there is a general problem agriculture faces: we have a vast and growing population, and we need to be fed. The risk of a seasonal low, or the plight of pests and disease, can be hard on farmers to say the least. A by-product of large scale, mono- varietal farming, which can rely heavily on irrigation, pesticides, and fungicides to guarantee crop success, is that our sensory experience of a carrot or an apple becomes limited. Everything tastes the same. This leads to consumers associating fruit and vegetables with a consistent flavour, and when presented with something that’s slightly blemished, or varying from this flavour, we reject it.
When I asked Mike Eggert what this means for a chef, he says the line is blurred for the worse when people decide that natural elements or free-living growing organisms should conform to consistency.
“It is the chef’s job to make each dish taste great and look great. This is not a
job for the farmers,” he says. “Unlike the farmers, chefs aren’t experiencing
the highs and lows of the flavour and seasonal spectrum, or challenged by divine yet imperfect food, and neither are the consumers.”
Mike says there is unfortunately a lack of farmers within the Sydney area who grow with “true terroir” in mind, who live and ride the seasons, and grow what they want, and not what consumers want.
“If the demand for baby carrots and micro greens pays the bills, then I say plant and sell them,” he says. “But if they aren’t free to plant for the season and mix up their crops, then they can also never show you some ups and downs or blow you away with seasonal greats. I get 99 per cent of my fruit and vegetables from Flemington and it’s basically the same all year. It’s good but it’s really never great, that’s the difference between Australia and Europe. We get 80 per cent delicious fruit or vegetables, like strawberries, 100 per cent of the year. [Europe] gets 100 percent delicious strawberries, 25 per cent of the year.”
RESPECTING TERROIR
In specialty coffee markets there are demands for a certain quality of flavour. Terroir is important, but there are particular varietals achieving “rock star status”
and exceptionally high prices. Manycoffee producers are planting these types
of varietals in conditions they weren’t meant to.
Producer Miguel says “growing rare varietals is hard and expensive. Not many farmers understand that such varietals only flourish with adequate care and treatment, and are not an automatic success. “I believe you can plant and achieve great results if you understand the risks and the market. I see a lot of Colombian coffee growers planting varietals such as Geisha, Pacamara, Wush Wush, but they do this in lower altitudes without shade, and think that because they planted this rare varietal, they are going to get US$30 per kilogram,” Miguel says. “If you respect terroir, an average varietal such as Castillo can taste better than a Geisha that hasn’t been tended to appropriately. The terroir that suits each type of coffee for me depends on those variables. For example, I wouldn’t plant a Geisha below 1600 metres above sea level with no shade. I would plant a Tabi varietal below this with no shade and won’t have any issues.”
Working with nature is always risky business. Coffee, in many ways, is a long way behind other agricultural practices in mitigating this risk. Arabica is being challenged by climate change. Shifting weather patterns and temperatures bring pests, fungus, and disease that thrive in the varying conditions. Developing and planting more resistant hybrids helps to an extent, but this takes time. Another constraint is the lack of genetic diversity of Arabica coffee. A recent study by World Coffee Research put the diversity at 1.2 per cent genetic variance between varieties, and only 0.5 per cent from the commonly grown varieties. This greatly reduces the species’ immunity to disease.
With the Arabica genome recently sequenced in early 2017, we can only now look at specific coffee breeding for disease resistance while hopefully maintaining quality of flavour. Well, that is so long as that demand for a specialty market exists.
WHAT WILL WE VALUE IN THE END?
Will terroir in coffee be valued by the masses, like wine? Purveyors of specialty coffee in Australia are certainly trying to promote this. We are slowly seeing a trend in Sydney and Melbourne of consumers drinking more filter coffee from in-season specialty single origins.
Will terroir still exist in generations to come? Or will we continue to manufacture flavour because it will sell?
There is an intrinsic value tied to the terroir in all agricultural products. This is why for me, food, wine, or coffee will never be something consumed mindlessly. Quality has nothing to do with opulence or class. It has everything to do with effort and good intent, and sharing the fruits of this labour.
Bursting through the office doors with a box in his hands, Silver lumbered over to the desk completely out of breath as he flopped it in front of the Rocket Boss. Then taking a few moments to retain some air first, the redhead was obviously in a hurry to present what he got for Gio. Out of guilt that he almost forgot perhaps?
"Happy birthday..."Scratching the side of his head in embarrassment now, he continued. "I-I think they came out okay, but I hope you like them though." Inside the box there are some ground-type inspired and homemade cookies.
They were lightly coated with a cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top for sand, and chunky chocolate pieces to represent dirt.
