Intercommunications for the Fertile Earth by Paige Emery, part of the exhibit Journal of Therolinguistics
In the Library of Antarctica, the noble literature of the emperor penguin is preserved in icy splendor. Sound farfetched? Ursula K. Le Guin didn’t think so, and neither does a new project inspired by her invented discipline of “therolinguistics,” the study of nonhuman art and language.
This summer, an exhibit at Descanso Gardens in Los Angeles invited eight international artists and Le Guin fans to interpret this fictional science, exploring the communicative innovations of beetles, bats, birds, beavers, lichen, and trees. Titled Journal of Therolinguistics, a reference to Le Guin’s experimental short story “The Author of the Acacia Seeds, and Other Extracts from the Journal of the Association of Therolinguistics,” the show “explores communication across species as acts of ecological kinship and fascination.”
“Today, therolinguistics has inspired a rich variety of artistic practices, all grown from the acacia seed Le Guin’s imagination planted over fifty years ago,” exhibit curator Oscar Salguero explains in an essay published via Hyundai Artlab. “These artists—working with photography, performance, illustration, video, and more—ask us to prize kinship over alienation and humility over dominance. In a time when such relational understanding is becoming increasingly endangered, their works expand our capacity for, fascination with, and care for more-than-human worlds, compelling us to consider what it is that makes us distinctly human and whether that distinction even matters.”
In Le Guin’s lore, the Journal of Therolinguistics ceased publication in 1983, following cutbacks in government research funding and the malfeasance of certain editors. But Salguero and his fellow devotees of this recondite field are bringing it back, inviting us nonexperts to bask in the glories of “Weasel murder mysteries, or Batrachian erotica, or the tunnel sagas of the earthworm.”
Check out images from the exhibition below and browse the gorgeously designed catalog, featuring art and writing from the contributors.
Nightcrawlers by Alice Bucknell
Theo Downes-Le Guin with curator Oscar Salguero standing outside the exhibit, and Bork Bibliothek by Nicole Brugger
The Classic of Bugs by Zhu Yingchun
Tree Tongue by Audax M. Gawler and Pri Bertucci
And for those of you eager to read “The Author of the Acacia Seeds” in an LOA edition, hold tight! We may have exciting news to share on that front soon.
