the wild city is only the past repeating * wildness doesn’t begin or end at the edge of the city * the wild doesn’t shut at 10pm * wild things have their own sequence * bring back the seasons! * our material existence cannot be sustained without wildness * the wild city reverses destiny * the wild opens up spaces in the city for new thought * only by mending the city will we repair the weather * we consider the mountains as the nation’s lungs but most people do their breathing in cities * the diesel rainbow floating on the puddle is a memorial * a culture so fixated on death has no need of breath * we have killed wildness many times but now it’s going to die * glass can be wild and so can paper, but never plastic* the wild flit of the seasons is a rush of signs * we will never remediate climate breakdown in country landscapes, only in streets and docks * there is no “road” that leads out of this mess * if only we were more hare-brained * every great city plan began with a wee den * each clover flower enlarges the city * shame is a nettle patch, good enough for butterflies if you wait * grubbing round in the weeds is a good place to find new arguments * wild politics: a fluctuating blend of wide-eyed federalism and grassroots anarchism * nothing makes people more afraid than poverty – in a landless city with no place to grow food for your family * allotments represent the right to care for the land not the right to own it * when the wild becomes unthinkable then life becomes impossible * the real wild begins at Dumgoyne – not in space, but in time * there are 2,000 coyotes in Chicago there are no wolves in Glasgow * every night the moon sets as certainly behind the tower-block as the mountain * in today’s news: they have cut down all the trees at Mount Florida station * wild lots of willow could make wild lots of heat (biomass) * only wild things are indispensable
Alec Finlay, Manifesto for Humandwolves, edition of 10 risograph posters. Photography: Mhairi Law, 2016
Alec Finlay is taking part in Radical Landscapes: Innovation in Landscape and Language Art at The Plough Arts Centre, Great Torrington, Devon from 23rd March to 22nd April 2019.
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In support of the exhibition, The Learned Pig’s Spring 2019 editorial season is devoted to Radical Landscapes.
