Oikeusjuttu (The Trial)
In Finland, the wolf is both more and less than an animal; it is a symbol. And this November sees a court case in which the very nature of that…
animals
Rye’s Valhalla
Influx Press’s editor-at-large, Gary Budden, and author of Marshland, Gareth E. Rees, venture into Rye Harbour with inadequate footwear and a 1904 guide to Sussex. They discover more than they’d…
Modern Naturalism
In 1958, the great Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser published the Mould Manifesto against Rationalism in Architecture. In it he declared, with characteristic chutzpah, that: “Only the engineers and scientists who…
Walking in the Sky
A small brown kestrel rises over the crest of a hill and pauses, hanging in the wind, scanning the fields below. With a tilt of its wings, it shifts vantage…
Animals are good to think [with]
Animals are good to think [with] – Claude Lévi-Strauss To be in two minds, think amoeba. To sell tea, think chimp. To build your own beak, think owl….
The Beast is not only the Tiger
The top floor of a modernist apartment block seems an unlikely location for the studio of an artist best-known for his engagement with botany. Nonetheless this is where we find…
No Rural Fantasy
The anti-pastoral of Cynan Jones I’m a Londoner through and through; a city person fascinated by everything the city is not. The rural worlds outside of mine are compelling, attractive,…
Books of the Month
October 2020 September 2020 One Long Black Sentence Renee Gladman and Fred Moten Image Text Ithaca August 2020 A Map of Absence Atef Alshaer (editor) Saqi Books July 2020 A…
The Dogs of El Chalten
The village of El Chalten is a service settlement. Located in the Parque Nacional los Glaciares in Patagonia, southern Argentina, the village is a four-hour walk to a network of…
Psychosis in the Andes
Dr Patricio practices indigenous medicine in a small clinic in the Andes. Sometimes he describes himself as a doctor, sometimes as a yachac or shaman. Here, the two are interchangeable….
100 poems in a day
On 22nd November 2013, Claire Trevien recklessly agreed to write 100 poems in a single day in order to raise money for Refuge. That’s more than she usually writes in…