Nothing of Importance Occurred
Recuperating a Herball for a 17th century Angolan midwife at the Cape
A project of recuperation of missing narratives at the Cape through artistic research, speculative investigation and transversal encounters
Nothing of Importance Occurred has as a focus on retrieving a library of plant-medicinal knowledge that might have informed enslaved ancestor, Maaij Claesje of Angola, midwife in the Company Slave Lodge in Cape Town. The project follows streams of contraceptive plant knowledge that flowed to the Cape through the bodies of enslaved women from Angola, Moçambique, and Madagascar, and from India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka, as well as through the bodies of women emigrating from the Netherlands, and Huguenots fleeing France. The investigation traces practices already existent at the Cape in the healing ecologies of Khoi, Nama, and San women. Because upwards of four million Angolans were trafficked to the Americas, the project follows recorded practices among women there too.
The project manifests through collaborative Fieldguides, performative Travelogues and Processions, polyvocal Herballs, Plant Duets and Clandestine Radioworks, and a series of Returns.
Nothing of Importance Occurred is the initiative of Wendy Morris who works through the entities of The Company : the Wandering Womb, Orlando Preternaturalist, Muriel Emissary to the Past, I the Ear and !midwif.
Procession of Contraceptive Plants and Forgotten Midwives / video
The Procession is a part of Nothing of Importance Occurred, a project of recuperation of…
Artistic Research Project at Middelheim Museum / Discussion between Wendy Morris and curator Pieter Boons
In residence at Middelheim Museum, Wendy Morris is exploring how knowledge of plant-based contraception has…
Journeywomen / Procession
Photo’s by Aldo Smith, student at LUCA School of Arts Brussels, of the Journeywomen passing…
Installation / Radio Hush Hush / Middelheim Museum
Summer installation Middelheim Museum Radio Hush Hush was accompanied to het huis pavilion at Middelheim…
Procession / Return Retrace Replant / Middelheim Museum
Performative Procession of Contraceptive Plants, Forgotten Midwives and Herb Women / Middelheim Museum On Saturday…
Belly Full of Blind Highways
A Letter by Wendy Morris / commissioned by KAAP and artist collective Dear, The third…
! Call to participate !
Since January Wendy has been working in commission of the Middelheim Museum on a new…
Belly full of blind highways
KAAP announces the upcoming release of four tape letters / We’re happy to announce our…
Strain Against the Archives / Fieldguide Gathering / Cape Town
A gathering around Fieldguide #1, UNPICK, RESTITCH – Doilies, Medorahs, Labouring Plants by Nadia Kamies. Read more…
There, Listening / Fieldguides Gathering / Kamiesberg
A three-day gathering in Kamiesberg/Namaqualand. Read more here
Fieldguide Gathering / Strain Against the Archives
Deep Histories Fragile Memories,in collaboration with Cape Town Museum,invite you to Strain Against the Archives…
Fieldguide Gatherings / South Africa
An Unruly Procession of Contraceptive Plants / taking shape in the Braem pavilion
photo Tom Cornille https://middelheimmuseum.be/en/AOP
Artistic Research Project / Reading the Landscape / Middelheim Museum
The Artistic Research Project is a new program of the Middelheim Museum in which artists are invited…
Belly full of blind highways
Dear, and KAAP commission four audio letters by writers Fred Moten (US), Wendy Morris (SA-BE),…
Hysteries / Plant of the Damned / Walk
Rooted Encounters / Middelheim Museum / November 9 2022 Walking Vulvaria and Plant of the…
Fieldguide Gathering
Ambulatory Libraries + Join us for the first Fieldguide Gathering, entitled Ambulatory Libraries, at Middelheim…
Rooted Encounters Symposium and Fieldguide Gathering
Rooted Encounters: Fields, Forests and Other Imaginings + Ecologies of Artistic Research. 8-9 November, 2022…
Artist Talk (un)common values
Artist Talk connected to the exhibition (un)common values at National Bank of Belgium https://www.nbb.be/en/articles/uncommon-values-contemporary-art-collection-national-bank-belgium-celebrating-its-50th More…
The Return
We are picking a path northwards, along sandy tracks and mountain passes. This is an…
Fieldguides for a Preternaturalist
An ambulatory library of ten chapbooks that mark a return from Cape Town to Angola. Volumes 1-3…
Gather, a Rehearsal
A Reading with the Bodies in the medicinal garden of ‘t Gasthuys. On March 25…
Exhibition / Ninguém teria acreditado / Pinacoteca Sao Paulo
The audio installation, A Hysterie of Guiné Weed and Sorrow Seed, is a part of…
A Hysterie of Guiné Weed and Sorrow Seed
A duet across the Atlantic of two esteemed weedworts with long histories of use as…
Fieldguides for a Preternaturalist
The Fieldguides are an upcoming publication series of single-essay chapbooks. They are a deep histories fragile…
Lost Volumes
An Affecting Narrative
Abstract: The seeds of Wild Carrot / print / 2021
Work / Abstract: The seeds of Wild Carrot / / 2021 / Multiple of 6…
Lost Volumes
Sixty stories will make up a set of Volumes, twelve in all. Lost Volumes, scattered…
Travelogue of the Wandering Womb, Her Fantastic Encounters and Curious Utterings: To the Copper Mountains
As a Thread Winding Backwards, an Audio Eerie + Prologue + A Tale of Eleven…
Exhibition
NO ONE WOULD HAVE BELIEVED – NIEMAND ZOU HEBBEN GELOOFD – PERSONNE N’AURAIT CRU HENRIQUE…
No One Would Have Believed
Exhibition by Wendy Morris and Runo Lagomarsino 14.11.2020 – 13.02.2021 by Henrique Alvim Corrêa in…
Whoever says sugar says Brazil
Whoever says sugar says Brazil. Whoever says Brazil says Angola. 17th century aphorism
Eleven births backwards
!midwif aka ‘Maaij’ Claesje of Angola, mother of Sara Van Gijselen, who is mother of…
Emissary to the Past
The suitcase stands empty in the studio. The thousand letters once crammed into it have…