Mother Nurture Art at the Episcopal Church St. Martin’s in Davis, California

Photo of "Mother Nurture" by Ann Liu

(From press releatse) As part of the Episcopal Church of St. Martin’s theme of healthy soil, healthy plants, and healthy community, the church has accepted an offer to host an art installation from the Arts, Cultures, and Designs of Remediation research cluster at UC Davis.

The Arts, Cultures, and Designs of Remediation cluster is a working group of faculty and graduate students from the performing arts, environmental design, and soil sciences. Their mission is to challenge us to think about how we can remediate and heal our soil, and tell our stories by doing so.

They have invited St. Martin’s to display a beautiful and creative art piece named Mother Nurture in its developing garden space outside of the Parish Hall facing Hawthorn Lane. It was recently shown at the International House in Davis and is now at St. Martin’s from May 14, 2021 to June 14, 2021.

Photo of "Mother Nurture" by Ann Liu

The installation invites individual storytelling and participation from the community. Pieces hung on the structure are all organic and made from Kombucha leather, mushrooms, seaweed, and silk from cocoons. Pieces are dyed from natural materials. Mother Nurture is very much a social structure because it invites participation. People are welcome to touch pieces and be inspired by our own ability to nurture the land we stand on, the air we breathe, and the water that nourishes us

The art piece includes Kombucha mothers because symbolically we can celebrate all our mothers – human and non-human—and  meditate on what it means to cultivate the best mother in ourselves. 

The community is welcome to add prayers to Mother Nurture on the Community Chalkboard and add a message of your own about mothering to the art piece itself.

The community is invited to begin growing Kombucha mothers now. In 3 weeks, the mother becomes leather and there will be a “molting” ceremony to replace the existing Kombucha leather on the installation with new pieces. For more information about the process of making Kombucha leather or to join the molting ceremony, please visit http://churchofstmartin.org or email Anuj Vaidya at anuva@ucdavis.edu.