Recipes for Disaster
Politics of Food residency, 2022
Delfina Foundation, Gaia Art Foundation

As a UK associate at Delfina Foundation as part of The Politics of Food programme, Andrew explored ideas of the military and disaster zones acting as a builder of ecologies, communities and new forms of agriculture. As R. Buckminster Fuller said, “Selfishness is unnecessary. War is obsolete. It is a matter of converting the high technology from weaponry to livingry”.

Recipes for Slow Disaster | 01 Wetlands is a print publication developed during his time on the residency. Comprised of initial research, provocations, case studies, interviews, and original diagrams, images and illustrations, the publication extends the notion of what should be considered a ‘disaster zone’ to that of the ‘slow disaster’. From this outset, it looks how existing ‘disaster response’ approaches might be adapted and utilised in various contexts, with a focus on the global destruction of wetlands.

The publication represents the start of a long-term project, looking at degraded and former wetlands around the world and how they could be actively regenerated through the adaption of disaster scenarios and responses.

How should we rethink and rebuild these lost landscapes when nothing, or very little, of past diversity exists?

During these slow disasters, can we build a community of like that which is found in the aftermath of sudden catastrophes?

https://www.delfinafoundation.com/in-residence/andrew-merritt/