Dartington Trust Shop in Totnes

Just some green, green books of home... ...

In The Black Fantastic is a fabulous survey of recent Black diaspora art by curator and writer @ekoweshun.

It is both fabulous as in fantastical content, and fabulous as in extraordinary, brilliant and expansive. The book accompanies an exhibition of the same name coming up at the Hayward Gallery featuring the work of 11 artists - Nick Cave, Sedrick Chisom, Ellen Gallagher, Hew Locke, Wangechi Mutu, Rashaad Newsome, Chris Ofili, Tabita Rezaire, Cauleen Smith, Lina Iris Viktor and Kara Walker.

The paintings, film, sound, sculptures and installations featured are linked by the creation of speculative fictions, alternative histories, utopias and dystopias to both describe Black experience and reconfigure its coordinates in anticipation of different futures. Although focussing on the 11 artists in the show the book is able to bring in the work many other artists, architects, musicians, filmmakers and diverse creatives to invoke the vibrant visions and rich language of a globally connected cultural movement.

Essays by Eshun and other contributors underline the radical potential of Afrofuturism, Conjure Feminism, Afronautics and other Black tropes to engage where traditional politics fails, and create the space to discuss challenging, emotional and urgent topics like race, gender and identity.

The Hayward Gallery exhibition opens on the 29th of June 2022. ...

Gow Time is fast approaching...

We are greatly looking forward to welcoming Derek Gow to the shop on 28th June.

Tickets are free and still available, so please reserve yours on dartington.org or in the shop. ...

A report on a new echo-logically friendly book in the MIT Essential Knowledge series...

One of the most annoying weapons in the arsenal of the average 10 year old is repeating back to you exactly what you’ve just said. This behaviour, with the satisfyingly infantile name of “echolalia”, is in fact a necessary part of learning a language as a baby (but very irritating coming from a tweenager). Echoing is therefore also the fall back formula when you meet a space alien you can’t understand - think of Close Encounters of the Third Kind’s iconic finale where the
helicopters are playing back those resonant 5 notes.

Far from mere vacuous repetition then, echo is in fact a formative act of language and rich cultural phenomena which is heard in the work of thinkers as diverse as Plato and Pink Floyd. Amit Pinchevski’s book resonates with this reflective potential, the echo as both medium and message. It is an echo that connects humans to nature as, through cave and cliff, the echo speaks our wisdom and stupidity back to us. ...

More love for eccentric comestibles from Bookseller Alex...

Turns out putting all of your Black Ogye chicken eggs in one basket is a bad idea. The Black Ogye chicken is a nearly extinct Korean breed not far removed from its jungle fowl ancestors and once valued for the medicinal uses of every part of the bird, even its faeces. As everywhere they are being replaced by modern chickens bred for fast growth, more meat and other perceived benefits to us - thought has even been given by scientists to selecting for blindness so they don’t fight in their increasingly crowded coops

The Ogye chicken is just one example used by Dan Saladino to describe the loss of biodiversity, genetic heritage and food culture which has arisen from the industrialisation of agriculture, alongside pressure on wild food resources. Red mouth rice, O-Higo Sybean, Murnong, Memang Narang, Wild Atlantic Salmon, Kayinja Banana, Criollo Cacao and the Vanilla Orange are some of the things on this watch list of flavours we may never taste, and genetic diversity we may lose, thanks to the homogenisation of seeds, animals and products by large corporations. Some of these old breeds may even be critical to our future food security, which is threatened by climate change, disease and other pathogens which thrive in the monocultures we are creating.

Blinding ourselves to what’s going on in an increasingly crowded world doesn’t feel like an option, so read this important and educative book asap. ...

A beautiful oddity about beautiful oddities...

At the first bite into this book you are greeted with a beautiful poem by Makshya Tolbert @processdaily. Their words set the tone of Odd Apples, a mystical amble through an abundant orchard.

Next, you will find a detailed ode to Malus (the apple genus) by photographer William Mullan @pomme_queen. Here, he explains both the history and basic biology of the often underappreciated fruit.

Then dig into page after page of wonderfully obscure fruits. Mullan’s obvious admiration and adoration for every variety is elegantly captured in each photograph. This mouth-watering compendium is extensive, but it only scratches the surface of the inexhaustible list of varieties that the world has to offer.

At its core, this book is an appreciation for the complexities of nature. William and Andrea @trabuccocampos were part of a trio when creating this work, the third collaborator being the humble apple. ...

Need to persuade yourself or a co-bather to take the plunge?

This is the book you've been waiting for. A guide to how to get the most out of this most free and freeing of activities, this book will take your skills and appreciation to the next level.

Along with the brilliant Wild Swimming Guides to the local area, sort out your summer (and all seasons! - see section on ice bathing). ...

Blue remembered books...

#books #bookstagramuk #bookstagram #shopwindow #bookshelves #bookshop #blue #navyblue #dartington #totnes #totneshighstreet #totnesmarket ...

This brief history and future of sound starts after life's first 3 billion years of near silence - with the evolution of eukaryotic cilia from tools of motion into sensory organs picking up the good vibrations.

From here @davidgeorgehaskell 's sonologue lays down a multi-track of natural aural wonders. With lively and engaging writing it's as if you can hear the first sonic communicators Permostridulus bring wing and leg together. Then listen through the hydrophone to the sonic haze of snapping shrimp claws (so loud that it hid US subs from sonar in WWII).

'Sounds Wild and Broken' also takes us through the evolution of the human soundscape from speech to music, and on to the modern phenomenon of noise pollution which threatens human and animal well being alike.

His point? We need to use the amazing senses we have to value the world's unique sonic ecologies, and actually listen to other life on the planet. "Listen" as both an aesthetic act and a means of understanding.

#sound #wild #eco #ecology #soundart #soundscape #evolution #sense #sensory #davidgeorgehaskell #faber #totnes #totneshighstreet #dartington #devon #bookstagram #bookrecommendations ...

Hello Yellow! The Sun finally came out today...

#totnes #totneshighstreet #dartington #bookstagramuk #bookstagram #yellow #windowdisplay #shopwindow ...