One of the challenges many artists working in this field face is related to ownership, particularly legal challenges such as, “Who has the authority to grant permission to develop something on public land?” and “What regulations govern this?” In these processes, artists often encounter large bureaucracies trying to balance the power of various stakeholders. Public needs for sewage systems, water, electricity, and roads will typically take precedence over the potential of any artistic idea. Often, the rights of birds, insects, and plant life are also overshadowed. So, how do we navigate these complexities? Who do we talk to, and how do we engage with them? These are some of the questions we will explore when we discuss this topic.
However, ownership issues are not limited to legalities. Working with nature and local communities as part of an artistic practice also raises questions about the artist’s ownership (and control) over their own work. How do you credit yourself or your group when it is the bees and local grandmothers doing much of the work?
By creating a sense of place, we encourage and strive to find new ways for people to take pride in and ownership of the land by inviting them to care for the natural world. Dealing with ownership in projects like these also involves exploring how to make people feel a sense of belonging and responsibility for a place and its ecosystems. Such responsibility for maintaining the land has often been referred to as stewardship, but one might call this an emotional ownership.
This brings us to the third area of ownership-related topics: the legal and non-legal rights of non-human species. When working with the land, we soon encounter questions about the rights of non-humans to claim a piece of land. How can projects like these challenge the dominant role of humans as the sole owners of nature?