Meditation in the Anthropocene by Victoria Smits

Meditation in the Anthropocene is part of an ongoing response to our current world: the Covid-19 pandemic, the quest for a legitimate response to systemic racism, and confronting a climate depreciated by our carelessness. It culls the detritus of gendered and mundane aspects of motherhood (pressure) and colludes with the Anthropocene, offering reprieve (centering and balance).

The meditative video merges the opposing forces of a deteriorating humanity with the natural - as a hope offering for reconciliation, where our breakdown drifts away. The dryer sheets, saved from actual loads of laundry, are coated with archival varnish, sewn in lengths, and float. It is my "mother cathedral" in my backyard. The hummed song, "Kumbaya," was part of my rigid religious heritage and I sing it to my youngest each evening when I take him to bed, a request he makes to soothe and relax him.

Meditation in the Anthropocene is a maternal longing for transcendence above what is now. It affords equilibrium and amnesty. 

*The verse, "Kumbaya," is muddled with historical amalgamation. The first known reference is a 1926 recording of a narrative Spiritual in Georgia traced back to H. Wylie. Ironically, Marvin V. Frey copyrighted the song in 1939 and claimed he based it off a prayer he heard from an evangelist in Oregon. It was adulterated during the summer of 1957 when it became part of a national summer camp tour by the Folksmiths (Library of Congress).

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