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Day and Night, 1938 by M.C. Escher. Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag © 2015 The M.C. Escher Company. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com ESCHER: IMAGINING A WORLD OF CONNECTION The Dutch ar tist M. C. Escher died in 1972 aged 73. Initially hailed by mathematicians in the 1950s, during the turbulent era of the 1960s Escher’s studiedly playful, subtly subversive imagined worlds were often appropriated by the counterculture of the day, reproduced on LP covers and in magazine ar ticles, becoming a favourite of Resurgence editors. Now a major new exhibition reminds us of other aspects of this singular ar tist’s work – interrelationships in the natural world. In his early twenties, Escher was fascinated by the repetitive patterns of Islamic tile work in the Alhambra palace in Granada. By the late 1930s, his absorption with such geometric patterns was finding expression in representations of the environment, such as this work, Day and Night (1938). A flock of white birds flies into the night while – heading in the opposite direction – a flight of black birds flies into the light. It is, Escher suggests, a world of equal and opposite; of connections. The exhibition, The Amazing World of M.C. Escher runs until 27 September at the Scottish National Galler y of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and then at the Dulwich Picture Galler y, London, from 14 October until 17 Januar y 2016.
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WELCOME VISIONS OF HOPE, WAYS OF SEEING A poet’s holistic view of Nature, social justice and the world can inspire us There’s an expansive and internationalist feel to Resurgence & Ecologist in this issue. Our writers range widely across subjects and continents, with passion and commitment. Passion, certainly, in Philip Pullman’s account of the new ways of seeing he discovered in the work of William Blake: “Sometimes we find a poet, a painter or a musician who functions like a key that unlocks a part of ourselves we never knew was there... Something awakes that was asleep, doors open that were closed, lights come on in all the windows of a palace inside us whose existence we never suspected.” Blake, of course, was a radical visionary, capable of combining acute artistic sensibility with a vigorous sense of politics, justice and a sense of wonder at the natural world – holistic views that we hope resonate through Resurgence & Ecologist. So in this issue, Aditya Chakrabortty reports on the fight for housing justice in Britain; Vandana Shiva writes movingly on the plight of Indian farmers struggling in the face of powerful industrial and economic forces, and Michael McCarthy argues that we must rediscover joy in Nature if we are to reverse at least some of the damage we are doing to our shared environment. Elsewhere in this issue, Heathcote Williams’ account of the extra­ordinary life of Badshah Khan, the Muslim hero of nonviolence and recon­ciliation, is a welcome counter to religious stereotyping. In Japan, our own Satish Kumar meets Keibo Oiwa, an academic activist who has helped fashion a movement to reconnect a sometimes febrile soci­ety with more lasting, sustainable values. And in a moving account of her own journey from almost unthinkable loss to forgiveness, Scarlett Lewis tells of coming to terms with her son’s death in a mass shooting. I began my account of this issue’s contents with Philip Pullman and his life-affirming encounter with the words and images of William Blake. Fitting, then, that our arts coverage – no less than our other features – echoes Blake’s holistic vision of the world. The artist Richard Long talks of his inspiration in Nature, Ian Skelly finds health and harmony in the music of J.S. Bach, and Peter Abbs reminds us of the poetic vision of Walt Whitman. There’s much more, too: we hope it adds up to some inspiring reading. Greg Neale Editor SIGN UP FOR RESURGENCE & ECOLOGIST IN PRINT AND RECEIVE FREE iPAD ACCESS to the current issue and the Resurgence archive FREE DELIVERY of the printed magazine every two months Just £30 for six issues a year with a free gift for all new members. Find out more and join: www.resurgence.org/membership Issue 292 Resurgence & Ecologist 1

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Day and Night, 1938 by M.C. Escher. Collection Gemeentemuseum Den Haag

© 2015 The M.C. Escher Company. All rights reserved. www.mcescher.com

ESCHER: IMAGINING A WORLD OF CONNECTION The Dutch ar tist M. C. Escher died in 1972 aged 73. Initially hailed by mathematicians in the 1950s, during the turbulent era of the 1960s Escher’s studiedly playful, subtly subversive imagined worlds were often appropriated by the counterculture of the day, reproduced on LP covers and in magazine ar ticles, becoming a favourite of Resurgence editors.

Now a major new exhibition reminds us of other aspects of this singular ar tist’s work – interrelationships in the natural world. In his early twenties, Escher was fascinated by the repetitive patterns of Islamic tile work in the Alhambra palace in Granada. By the late 1930s, his absorption with such geometric patterns was finding expression in representations of the environment, such as this work, Day and Night (1938). A flock of white birds flies into the night while – heading in the opposite direction – a flight of black birds flies into the light. It is, Escher suggests, a world of equal and opposite; of connections. The exhibition, The Amazing World of M.C. Escher runs until 27 September at the Scottish National Galler y of Modern Art, Edinburgh; and then at the Dulwich Picture Galler y, London, from 14 October until 17 Januar y 2016.

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