Seasons of Coexistence
Saanvi Bhat
Seasons of Coexistence
A relational practice exploring ecological coexistence through collective observation, material storytelling, and community engagement built through dialogue with Deer Lake on the unceded territories of the Coast Salish peoples, including the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), and kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem) nations.
A response to environmental issues through relational ecological practice. In a time where ecological crisis, urbanization, and extractive systems increasingly distance people from the environments they inhabit, this project asks how design might help rebuild relationships with local ecosystems through attention, reciprocity, and shared experience. Rather than positioning nature as something separate to observe or consume, this work encourages people to understand themselves as participants within living systems.
The work consists of vessels made using copper and wood alongside a growing book of observations documenting species encounters, seasonal shifts, conversations, and stories gathered through repeated returns to the site. What began as a personal attempt to co-design with the western painted turtle gradually expanded into a collective practice of noticing and learning with others.
A hummingbird returning to the same branch, sometimes invisible until he moved.
The bowls hold stories gathered through repeated encounters with Deer Lake. Some emerged through moments of absence and uncertainty, while others were shaped through encounters with fungi, birds, herons, hummingbirds, and eventually the turtles themselves. Material became a way to physically hold these relationships. Copper records every mark of making and requires slowness and care, while wood continues to shift and crack over time. Rather than concealing these transformations with synthetic fillers or toxic resins, the work allows the material to continue behaving as itself, embracing non-extractive and low-impact approaches to making. The work has already extended beyond personal practice through public engagement and collaborative exchange. Through co-curating exhibitions including An Invitation, the work opened itself to dialogue around ecological relationships, materials, and collective learning.
How can you engage? Through public exhibitions, seasonal gatherings, guided walks, collaborative observation practices, educational partnerships, and more… The work is intentionally grounded in slow, accessible, and low-impact methods that can continue beyond and adapt to different communities and ecosystems. By combining material storytelling with shared ecological experience, the project demonstrates how design can function not only as an object-making practice, but as an ongoing act of stewardship, care, and ecological relationship-building. Ask yourself, how can you take this forward and how could you return to a place with intention?
