Càrna

12/12/2023

THE ANGER OF FLOWERS, Earth Poem by E.R.D
Artwork by Emir Elisa

A poem in the name of Armita Geravand, another woman immolated at the hands of the ongoing apartheid in Iran, to remind us that our struggle for female liberation is international, interspecies, interconnected. With the anger of flowers, we shall rise and call the spring of freedom into being. As for now, we must unite.

12/12/2023

UNVEILING VIOLENCE: FEMININITY BENEATH THE LAYERS

As the international community persists in its silence, the patriarchal regime keeps burying its daggers of discrimination and violence in the flesh of our societies. Just months away from the murder of teenage Armita Geravand, on behalf of the Iranian morality police; just days away from the murder of Giulia Cecchettin, 105thcase of femicide in Italy in 2023; just minutes away from the denial of safe pregnancies to all those women in Palestine, questions around female liberation and solidarity become vital: femininity, despite geographical distances, is caught in the tight grasp of patriarchal clutches. For our mothers, daughters, sisters, we must unveil violence and learn that love, stripped of rancour, is our only way out of this plagued circle.

https://carnamag.weebly.com/anti-news/unveiling-violence-femininity-beneath-the-layers

22/11/2023

Giulia Donato, Martina Scialdone, Oriana Brunelli, Teresa Di Tondo, Yana Malayko, Alina Cozac, Giuseppina Faiella, Antonia Vacchelli, Carmelina Marino, Santa Castorina, Stefania Rota, Cesira Bambina Damiani, Rosina Rossi, Agnese Oliva, Sigrid Gröber, Maria Luisa Sassoli, Giuseppina Traini, Rosalba Dell’Albani, Iolanda Pierazzo, Iulia Astafieya, Rossella Maggi, Pietronilla De Santis, Rubina Kousar, Maria Febronia Buttò, Pinuccia Contin, Francesca Giornelli, Zenepe Uruci, Carla Pasqua, Alessandra Vicentini, Sara Ruschi, Brunetta Ridolfi, Anila Ruci, Wilma Vezzaro, Danjela Neza, Jessica Malaj, Yirelis Pena Santana, Giulia Tramontano, Mariuccia Godasso, Anica Panfile, Pierpaola Romano, Ottavina Maestripieri, Mariangela Formica, Floriana Floris, Maria Brigida Pesacane, Cettina De Bormida, Rosa Moscatiello, Simona Lidulli, Svetlana Ghenciu, Margherita Ceschin, Norma Ricini, Michelle Maria Causo, Laura Pin, Adela Gabriella Lingurar, Ilenia Bonanno, Mariella Marino, Vera Maria Icardi, Marina Luzi, Mara Fait, Angela Gioiello, Sofia Castelli, Iris Setti, Maria Costantini, Rossella Nappini, Celine Frei Matzohl, Anna Scala, Vera Schiopu, Marisa Leo, Nerina Fontana, Cosima D’Amato, Rosaria Di Marino, Maria Rosaria Troisi, Egidia Barberio, Liliana Cojita, Anna Elisa Fontana, Manuela Bittante, Klodiana Vefa, Monica Berta, Carla Schiffo, Anna Malmusi, Eleonora Moruzzi, Concetta Marruocco, Giuseppina Lamarina, Annalisa D’auria, Etleva Kanolja Bodi, Michele Faiers Dawn, Giulia Cecchettin, Rita Talamelli

L’amore, in Italia, uccide. Questi sono i nomi delle donne vittime di femminicidio in Italia fino ad ora nel 2023. Anche solo un nome di questi sarebbe un nome di troppo. PER LE NOSTRE MADRI, FIGLIE, SORELLE CHE L’AMORE NON BEVA PIÙ IL NOSTRO SANGUE

22/11/2023

SIDON, Earth Poem by E.R.D.
Illustration by Emir Elisa

This old poem seemed relevant to express the direness of such times. It seems like something of civilisation has been lost in many ways, amongst the magnitude of such violence, similarly to the loss of ancient and mothering Sidon. Here the phoenician capital becomes a metaphor for civilisation as a whole: may we learn to give space and let last all that is not hell on this earth.

22/11/2023

THE POLITICS OF THE FUTURE START AMONGST WILDFLOWERS GATHERING IN RAGE IN THE BURROW OF YOUR SPIRIT
Oil on canvas painting by Emir Elisa

From an old poem, a reminder that all revolutions and transitions must happen within oneself, before they reach any outer space. The future is within, we can shape it if we reimagine and question how we think, believe and act.

13/10/2023

An article for some context and a call for humanity, contextualisation, moral responsibility and education...

And you dare to call me a terrorist While you look down your gun When I think of all the deeds that you have done You have plundered many nations Divided many lands You have terrorized their...

13/10/2023

WHO IS THE HARBINGER OF TERROR?

Since the dawn of Saturday, recent attacks by Hamas have targeted Israel and engaged the rest of the world. Various media outlets are attempting to make sense of these ongoing events, whilst revealing how the information of various narrators is profoundly drenched in contrasting ideologies and opinions. The attempt to be ‘’neutral’’ is implausible in any recount, but this becomes impossible when the goal is explaining the relationship between Israel and Palestine. What is reported, what is ignored, who is the ‘’terrorist’’, who is the ‘’victim’’, who is the ‘’we’’: all of these implicit choices let the truth of one’s judgment seep through the cracks of language. For this reason, we believe this is a time for information, and its messengers, to embrace the truly political power of pen. It is time to recognise how information can lead towards war, or steer us towards peace.

https://carnamag.weebly.com/anti-news/who-is-the-harbinger-of-terror

30/06/2023

SAINING, Earth Poem by E.R.D.
Illustration by Emir Elisa

02/06/2023

‘Glasgow’s steel front’
‘Clyde (1960)’

We would like to thank for organising this wonderful exhibition and making us part of it, in Pop up Pavillion in Kiel, Germany for the project ‘Gemeinsam Gegen Climate Change’ running from the 31 May until 16 June.

01/06/2023

Càrna stands in solidarity with the urgent appeal of women in Iran and Afghanistan to end gender apartheid.

The term “gender apartheid” was employed by Professor Karima Bennoune, to describe the Taliban’s institutionalised discrimination of women in a legal, political and cultural sense. By recognising this word, we also recognise the violence attached to it, we are able to legally hold people accountable for their practices, thus contributing to women’s liberation across the globe.

We cannot be silent: women are being murdered, abused, kidnapped in each country every day. The scale of the issue in Iran and Afghanistan serves to demonstrate how these same issues, namely the violence of men against women, are formally institutionalised to segregate women and deprive them of civil and political rights. We need to fight discrimination, femicide, sexual abuse, prejudice, exclusion and all forms of violence against women in our day to day life, and support the global struggle for female liberation.

Today, we must stand by Iran and Afghanistan in particular, which are under Taliban power since 1990s, to raise the voices of Iranian and Afghan women and men who are fighting against the regime. In solidarity with them, against all violence and silence.

24/04/2023

The ghosts of industrial life still churning in the back lanes, atop the open roofs, in the cellars of modern life. The eternal sigh of machinery keeps soaring upwards, sending its coil to the diseased skies without rest. The ghosts of industrial life becoming our gods day by day.

Photography on film by Emir Elisa, 2023

15/04/2023

RIMANENZA
Poem by E.R.D. for Emir’s painting

31/03/2023

RIMANENZA
Oil and acrylic painting by Emir Elisa

A sacred and symbolic vision of our childhood in the countryside, as our grandmother is keen upon the land, seeking the roots and fruits born from a commitment to the earth.

16/02/2023

We had the pleasure of contributing to the POETRY EXPO 2023 organised by , a digital poetry platform supported by the European Commission’s Creative Europe programme. Check it out!

04/02/2023

I. STUDIES ON FASCISTM: A FASCIST MYSTIC

Fascism is responsible for the ‘’aestheticisation of politics’’, in the words of philosopher Walter Benjamin. Communism, on the other hand, has responded to this through the politicisation of art. However, to claim that fascism is pure aesthetics may seem reductive: beneath the ostentatious austerity of fascist art, spearheaded by the futurist movement, a School of Fascist Mysticism underpins this political movement’s history and practice, in an attempt to give it a philosophical basis. Here we touch upon some of the principles guiding the religiously rigorous, misogynist, warmongering doctrine of fascism, subject of very limited research in 80 years that set us apart from it, in order to understand how its ethics simply crumbles to dust when subjected to such faint scrutiny.

https://carnamag.weebly.com/anti-news/i-studies-on-fascism-a-fascist-mystic

17/01/2023

LÁ AN DEOILÍN, Earth Poem by E.R.D.
Illustration by Emir Elisa

With belated greetings, we welcome ourselves and you back into this new year. We are working on some new themes to explore the undergrounds and pipelines of our society at the moment, seeking to post our finger upon the right cracks. We hope you have found much rest and reason to resist the harsh realities of this winter, may they only reinforce and help mature those beliefs that bleed into your practices each day, as grapes waiting to mature in silence within their casks. Belated yuletide greetings from the sisters!

11/11/2022

COMPOSITION OF A SEASON IN DECAY
Collage on Paper

The autumn is made of pieces and colours descending to the earth, preparing to be putrefied and repurposed with the awakening of spring. Although often unseen beneath the veil of leaves and mounds of ripe sadness, the season matures with the sweetness of a forgotten fruit. In the doldrums, the beauty of hidden colours, of silent gathering, of scarlet fire grows in the passage and decay.

03/11/2022

ODE TO REVOLUTION
(Variations on a theme by Majakovskij)

‘Ode to Revolution’ exhibition poems by E.R.D.

To you,
who upon reflection
find yourself,
to you,
who must obey
the duty of a heretic,
the calling of autumn
raises the coil
of question
grants the toil
of labour.
What do you call yourself?
How do you
stay with the trouble, duplicitous?
Moved by rage or
by impotence excused?
To the children of shipyards,
manufacturing revolt,
to the passionflowers planting
resistance amidst misery,
you give might
and glorify human struggle.
As the leaves pour
onto the street with rage
in their infrangible unity
they sing the psalm
of a falling season,
of all people that on earth
do dwell.
Look into the silence
of winter to find
the screaming spring
the anger of flowers
the wrathful throwing of light
the ardent fire that rests
within the circle of stones
of the breast.
Indignation burns and
turns the skin red.
There are no grounds for pessimism!
Look into the mirror
to find the cinders of faith
an altar of trust
the parliament of possibilities
an ecology of ideas.
Look into the mirror!
The politics of the future start
amongst wild flowers
gathering in rage
in the burrow of your spirit.

31/10/2022

CRADLE II

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition paintings by Emir Elisa

28/10/2022

FUARAG

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition poems by E.R.D.

The growling cry of autumn presents
its decisive grace in the gathering
of chattering leaves, in the light
residing at the heart of a turnip.

October speaks its fears,
from the chest to the eardrum.

One takes a large spoonful
from the hearth of a bowl
where the thick and fuming
oatmeal portents the future:

the apotropaism of a thimble,
a ring, a coin, a lump
of hope the size of a button.

To each the fates forgive
and offer their fortunes:
the eye awakens as a tongue
to savour what the season grants:

like spirits from the dark earth,
its soft humours of emotion.

25/10/2022

LA PASIONARIA

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition paintings by Emir Elisa

21/10/2022

SAMHUINN

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition poems by E.R.D.

When the cold slowly descends
with its frigid plumes and
a promise of winter to cleanse
the land, this prepares for
the fruits of a new year, spinning
as a wheel in the distance:
the dark days dim all distraction,
make the boundary between
the world and the other
thin, welcome into place
warm spirits walking earthen mounds
with their milk-white feet.
The fire burns, crackles
its restless flames, washing
the blemishes of fatigue
off the back of the old year:
moved by the harsh cry
of a hollow stomach,
their morality famished
by hunger and need,
each year three female wolves
descend the hills to scavenge,
to clench their thirst;
every time the glottis of a harp
opens its strings and
vibrates in a crystal voice,
they become women,
hunted by landless men
who slay them with a spear.
When the wolf month falls
out of being,
the wounds open, close
before the warmth touches
the land, awakens its creatures.

18/10/2022

DAUGHTER EARTH

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition paintings by Emir Elisa

14/10/2022

LUNGHNASAGH

‘Ode to Revolution’ Exhibition poems by E.R.D.

The harvest moon rising
to its seat of silence
brings the fruit of a season
coming to life
in its crisp chants,
in its pits of fire and wool,
in structures of timber wood:
the long line waiting
tor pudding, the impatience,
the unexpected garden
opening at the back of
a deep green room
where a fireplace immolates
its breast to the circle
of standing trees.
The children were dancing,
telling strangers
of their new puppy dog,
the gentle tone of a man
thundering through
the descent of the night,
as his silver dog ran past
with a treasure of bark
in its mouth.
The soft smile of a piper
playing with his band,
recognising laughter
within, as they kick each other
to finish.
The rhythms of
a child's spoons, the kitchen's
tunes of sharing and
passing one's last bowl
of plum crumble
still warm and crisp
from the pan
to he who hasn't eaten.
Corn on the cob wrapped
in silver is distributed
as a token of summer's
cousin coming
to declare themselves welcome
as the flowers whither
in their eternal beauty,
the wood carvings
come to life in front
of a season warmed by
the open fire,
naked stories, the full plates
as offerings to gods,
a toast raised high
in autumn’s nest,
open boats and honest hands
open to feed
each other and one’s stranger.

09/10/2022

A wee sneak peak about last night… we had the pleasure of joining the symposium on Human Ecology by with our exhibition ‘Ode to Revolution’

More to come soon! Stay tuned 🌹✊

30/09/2022

Dear Glasgow friends,

We have been working hard in the workshop to present our first public exhibition as the Càrna sisterhood, “Ode to Revolution”.
This will be a contribution to the 50th Anniversary symposium of on Radical Human Ecology. Come along on 8th October for some radical conversations, art, poetry and a ceilidh. Tìoraidh an-drasta!

E & E

10/09/2022

A SCARF OF RED, Earth poem by E.R.D.

05/09/2022

IF IT WASNAE FOR THE UNIONS

A wave of dissent and protests has swept over the country to challenge the power of capital. As flags red with blood and wet with sweat have risen, workers of all trades have begun to leave their workplaces and organise in the face of rising living costs and the energy crisis, with an enthusiasm not seen in decades. Their strikes have proven the very fact that without the presence of working hands, labouring and toiling away, the functioning of society as a whole would not be possible. The workforce has the power to reinstate this claim each time it decides to withdraw its labour and disrupt the flow of social life: but what is the value of strike in a world that encourages competition over cooperation, harsh individualism over caring alliance, laxness over resistance? Is protest useful today, when algorithms govern and control our lives?

https://carnamag.weebly.com/anti-news/if-it-wasnae-for-the-unions

22/07/2022

BEYOND THE MACHINE

The question concerning technology does not merely concern human artefacts, but it is also a question of ethos, of reverence, of gratitude. We forget to hold our phones as miraculous shrines that incapsulate sound from one side of the globe and transfer it to the other; to fly across countries realising we are merely mimicking the flight and composition of birds; to turn the lights on reminiscing the struggles of fumbling in the heart of the night, whilst the aid of sunlight is brought to life on command. Thanks to human brilliance, life is made easy by artifice. It is made easy, but not simple. Through technology, we have accommodated our needs and dangerously transformed them into necessity. The attitude of humanity remains stolid in the face of the wonders it has created.

https://carnamag.weebly.com/anti-news/beyond-the-machine

01/05/2022

CAVE OF FORGOTTEN DREAMS, Earth Poem by E.R.D.

Inspired by a recent dream, heavy with light and the thump of titan horses galloping at the feet of a fjäll, this poem is designed to remain concealed beneath the vision of a horse mask, inspired by the celtic bronze of Stanwick which dates back to 50 BCE - 100 CE.