J for JOY
“Taking delight (se réjouir) is always delighting in being what one is, that is, in having reached where one is. Joy is not self-satisfaction, not some enjoyment of being pleased with oneself, not at all, not the pleasure of being happy with oneself. Rather, it’s the pleasure in conquest (conquête), as Nietzsche said, but the conquest does not consist of enslaving people, conquest is, for example, for a painter to conquer color, yes, that’s what a conquest is. That’s what joy is …”
Gilles Deleuze. From A-Z. 1989.
part of cultivator's mission is to surface ideas + experiences from the 'roots up + across'.
current project
Taking a leaf out of the guerilla gardening playbook, that sees citizens nurturing and reviving plots on desolate nature strips and blighty-concrete foot paths they technically don’t have any legal rights to, cultivator’s next ‘citizens for joy’ project is ‘native rose’.
A bit of planting + attention will be given to a joyless circa-1960s memorial seat erected in honour of Australian poet Henry Lawson in the local neigbourhood.
More on this project will be posted in time.
past projects
Discourse salons, a plant cutting exchange, creator catch ups and a community re-usery are some of cultivator’s past activations.
If you live in NSW and are keen for some grassroots community activation in your locale, drop us a line.
image attributions: top left and middle right: digital collages by ilustrator Tottie, for cultivator. bottom left: photos by cultivator.