Allow me to Introduce...and Take Away...
An Exhibition at the Haida Gwaii Museum
An Exhibition at the Haida Gwaii Museum
_An Exhibition at the Haida Gwaii Museum
This body of work is influenced by our struggles with and against the natural environment, the push and pull we exert on nature. It is focused on broad concepts, the roles humans play in controlling, manipulating, and altering the natural environment.
Manipulations of the environment are of significant concern in an enclosed ecosystem such as island ecosystems, due to the lack of genetic diversity and the associated severe and often unintended consequences.
This body of work is influenced by Haida Gwaii. It is fictional, and based on true events.
There are endless examples of human influence which disturb the natural balance (negatively or positively depending on your perspective) on Haida Gwaii and elsewhere. This exhibition is a small expression of something quite large and conceptually complex. It is an aesthetic simplification of human environmental relationships.
I have chosen 5 examples of pairings, which have had a significant impact on these islands. Each piece is framed by hand with local yellow cedar and hemlock. The glass medium is used to express the beauty and fragility of life and of island ecosystems.
The pairing of pieces and of specific visual elements, represents the idea of inversion and reflection in what I explore conceptually. These pairings all have close relations to each other in respect to distinctions such as alien vs. Native, introduced vs. Endemic, and deliberate vs. unintended motivations, causes and consequences.
It seems ironic that two very similar species (or the very same species for that matter) could be treated so differently according to context. Some we want, some we don't. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't. It all depends on the meaning and value we create and associate with each particular species.
Where do these meanings and values originate?
How do they generate so much momentum and so quickly lose control?
How do we slow it all down and gain control? Or, let go of control: over our environment, over ourselves?
Manipulations of the environment are of significant concern in an enclosed ecosystem such as island ecosystems, due to the lack of genetic diversity and the associated severe and often unintended consequences.
This body of work is influenced by Haida Gwaii. It is fictional, and based on true events.
There are endless examples of human influence which disturb the natural balance (negatively or positively depending on your perspective) on Haida Gwaii and elsewhere. This exhibition is a small expression of something quite large and conceptually complex. It is an aesthetic simplification of human environmental relationships.
I have chosen 5 examples of pairings, which have had a significant impact on these islands. Each piece is framed by hand with local yellow cedar and hemlock. The glass medium is used to express the beauty and fragility of life and of island ecosystems.
The pairing of pieces and of specific visual elements, represents the idea of inversion and reflection in what I explore conceptually. These pairings all have close relations to each other in respect to distinctions such as alien vs. Native, introduced vs. Endemic, and deliberate vs. unintended motivations, causes and consequences.
It seems ironic that two very similar species (or the very same species for that matter) could be treated so differently according to context. Some we want, some we don't. Sometimes we like them, sometimes we don't. It all depends on the meaning and value we create and associate with each particular species.
Where do these meanings and values originate?
How do they generate so much momentum and so quickly lose control?
How do we slow it all down and gain control? Or, let go of control: over our environment, over ourselves?