Resistance is beautiful

Transitioning into an unknown future has got to be about creativity. We must let our imaginations run loose to create new ways of living, new types of energy and new games to play. So when we look at it, everyone is an artist – whether seen as a traditional artist who will create dazzling posters of the next big project, the hidden artist given the blank canvas of a raised bed and turning it into an artwork of purple broccoli and marigolds, or the ingenious artist who will create new types of energy from sun, wind or bikes. Creativity and imagination are what we thrive on.

So whilst concentrating so hard on the issues we madly try to face - climate change, peak oil and loss of communities – with a loud tick tock as the clock keeps turning, our imagination can see no limits. It is what allows us to smash through the barriers of normality and create the new ways of living that have not been seen before.

In January, Grow Heathrow (a squatted community garden) are offering the opportunity to be part of a week-long artistic residency that explores the creative link between resistance, permaculture, occupation and transition. We will use the site as a home, workshop and gallery, and with the generous amount of funding given to the project from Hillingdon Council it should be an amazing experience. We plan to mix community living with creativity, learning, teaching and skill sharing to create… well we just don’t know yet! Anyone is welcome, no matter what age, experience or skill level. Whether resisting climate change, globalization or eviction from our homes, we will do it with beauty, creativity and imagination.

The week long Artists Residency opportunity is running from the 16th January until the 22nd January (with people arriving on the evening of Sunday 15th). The cost is free but a £20 deposit is required by 5th January 2011 to secure a place. For more information you can contact growheathrow.residency@gmail.com

The video below is of a project run by The Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination - which combined art and activism to create bikes to be used on the mass action at the COP15 climate change conference in Copenhagen, 2009.