Earthkinology // Alisa Ruzavina
Earthkinology is a socially-engaged ecological art studio working in public art, community projects and creative experiences for collective joy. We create playful spaces and conversations for ecological and social dreaming, weaving together stories of pace-based kinship and ways of relating, being and belonging that rewild the urban mind.
The studio is run by Alisa Ruzavina - a community & ecology-tending interdisciplinary artist, designer and facilitator. Her curiosity lies in creating conversations and collective experiences in the public realm that playfully explore alternative forms of knowledge, opening possibilities for sustainable place-based ways of relating, making and being that bring us closer in communion with the Earth and one another.
Alisa’s socially-engaged practice spans across textiles, costume, public art, installation, sculpture, ritual, ceremony, celebratory and immersive experiences, feasts, workshops, community and participatory art, nature-based and creative education. Rooted in her experience as a solo migrant to the UK, Alisa’s practice is focused on intercultural and interspecies exchanges that nurture a sense of belonging and support the articulation of a communal identity, with special attention given to how these get shaped up through relationality with the urban landscape, its culture and its more-than-human residents.
Alisa holds a BA in Fashion Design with Print and MA Material Futures, both from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, where she is currently an Associate Lecturer at The Design School. Alisa is a ranger for London National Park City. She is a life-long apprentice in Earthly animacy and kincentric worldviews. She lives, works, and wanders on the banks of London’s river Lea marshlands, who are her greatest teachers.
Alisa’s clients, funders, exhibitors and commissioners include Barbican, the V&A, Tate Exchange, Natural England, Arts Council, British Council, British Land, Mayor of London, Craft Council, Climate Emergency Network, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London Fashion Week, Fashion Revolution, Making For Change, Timberland, Waltham Forest, Newham, Camden and Hackney Councils, among many others.