Spiders in Motion, Rainy Commotion published by Ivorypress, is an ongoing collection of proverbs made by Tomás Saraceno in the context of the collaborative exhibition Web(s) of Life as presented at Serpentine in Summer 2023.

The proverbs collected in this book, collected from diverse cultures, are an invitation, an exercise in collective memory, for some to remember and for others to learn how changing some habits may lead to greater climate justice.

As we face environmental emergencies, climate injustice and breaches of human rights, many ways of knowing are in crisis. For some, it seems unquestionable that the only way to forecast the weather is to consult a mobile phone connected to the World Wide Web. We hope these proverbs serve to widen and re-entangle knowledge, offering the reader old ways of knowing the weather by redirecting their gaze to their surroundings, not their phone. Maybe if 8 billion people could learn to read the weather without relying solely on the digital cloud, the entire climate of the planet would change — and this time for the good of the majority!

The materials used for this artist’s book are compostable (including the wrapping) and made from plant fibers. The behavior of these natural materials lead to imperfections, making each book unique.