This work was born in response to Mary Oliver's poem, 'Summer Days', during a time when I was finding living in the city unbearable - unable to travel into the city for Uni, I sought refuge by the Merri Creek. It made me think about how we build Churches by clearing land, when Country, land, nature, is our original church, a place of worship. I wanted to create a 'mobile church', you could take with you, a reminder that she's always here, we don't need buildings to experience God, we simply have to walk up to a tree, or sit by the creek.

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The First Church 

 

To kneel, is all it takes

beg, and wipe the Insects to one side 

where your knees will lay, 

and pray

Dear Child 

it is that simple

We do not need to pour concrete 

clear Land

Trees

in order to pray to God in heaven 

for God is not in heaven

She is here

on Earth 

the Insects beside you 

the homes in which they dwell 

the sun that pours infinitely 

over the course of your perfect face

She never runs out 

Like the glass the church commissions 

endless 

understand this

it is only the resources that we destroy 

that interrupts our attendance at church 

Come Child 

Forgive yourself 

and do not complicate 

what has been made to be so simple 

cherish her beside you 

the Grasshopper

For she is a saint 

there is no other 

like her

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Soraya is a multi disciplinary artist, currently living and working on the lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung and Bunurong people of the Kulin nation, who gravitates towards making sculptural works and installations using organic and found materials that inquire into the unseen. Soraya is deeply interested in the esoteric, religion, Witches, earthly matter, and intersectional feminist ideologies. They are currently studying a bachelor of fine arts at RMIT. 

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Earth Church

2025

various wood, twine, and wire

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hellosoraya@outlook.com

@_earth_fantasy

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