G41 – Begin Again

“My Soil Farsh: Iteration 2 (The Sacred Shared Labour)”, Soil Grinding Rituals, 2024. Prita Tina Yeganeh, Sirena Varma, Madina Mohmood, Celest Munro, Shirin Mirshafiei and Adna Cevap. Photographed by Thomas Oliver

“The end is the beginning.”

Antaha Asti Prarambh (अन्तः अस्ति प्रारम्भ)

The theme for Issue 41 of Garland is creation and rebirth. This is the fourth of our Storylines series and the final in our second journey.

Storylines has profiled the important meanings that objects help keep alive in our world today. This final issue turns to themes of creation and rebirth. The genesis stories—those “In the beginning…” narratives—are a key way in which cultures have grounded themselves over millennia. Many of these stories relate to a world that is crafted: moulded by hand or woven.

This issue comes at a time when global problems seem especially intractable: climate change, territorial conflicts and screen addiction. *Begin Again* helps imagine a space to reset things. It represents the hope that, out of chaos, comes a chance to start over.

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Our guest editor, Kaamya Sharma, offers an Indian perspective that reframes how we might understand creation itself:

Indian metaphysics has a cyclical view of creation. Literary theorist Ganesh Devy notes that this is distinct from the Western metaphysics of creation and exile. There is the fall from the origin, and everything that comes after is accompanied by guilt. Indian metaphysics, by contrast, holds that “repeated birth is the very substance of all animate creations”. The Vishnu Purana, an ancient text estimated to have been written sometime between 400 BCE and 900 CE, describes the Pralaya as a cosmic inundation which annihilates the universe but also signifies the start of the next cycle of creation. Time is not linear but cyclical; things do not precede or follow each other. If meaning does not derive from the laws of linear temporality, what implications might it have for the act of creation? Is there such a thing as an original? From (re)tellings of epics to poetry to cinema, many storytelling traditions in India embody this consciousness.

“Translation and Literary History: An Indian View”, Ganesh Devy, Postcolonial Translation, Susan Bassnett & Harish Trivedi (eds.), 1999, Routledge.

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This way of seeing—where creation is not a singular event but an ongoing cycle—offers a fitting lens as Garland completes its second journey. After 10 years, with more than 2,000 stories by 1,000 writers from nearly 100 countries, we have the chance to reflect on this precious legacy and consider where we go next. In the spirit of cyclical renewal, each ending contains the seeds of a new beginning. The objects we profile continue to be made, remade and reinterpreted by hands that connect us across time and cultures.

Special thanks to organisation partners MAP Academy, Serendipity, longtime perennials Andrea Ferrari and Maria Fernanda de Baes, Jacky Cheng and Jaeyoung Kang.

Creation

Threads

Earth

Tree

Rebirth

Dedication

This issue is dedicated to the memory of Rex Greeno (1942-2025), a Palawa elder born on Flinders Island (Tasmania). Uncle Rex kept his First Nations culture alive in many ways, such as reviving traditional canoe-making (tuylini, ninga, and pyerre), the results of which are on display in museums across Australia. Uncle Rex is the beloved husband of Lola Greeno and father of Dean Greeno.