“150/day” According to scientists, 150 species go extinct each day. These are 150 of my favourites in this part of the Fraser Valley. 150 petri dishes with cyanotyped pads and text.

“150/day” According to scientists, 150 species go extinct each day. These are 150 of my favourites in this part of the Fraser Valley. 150 petri dishes with cyanotyped pads and text.

detail of “150/day”

detail of “150/day”

detail of “150/day”

detail of “150/day”

detail of “150/day”

detail of “150/day”

We Hold Our Grief in the Lungs, 2019 30” X 30” Encaustic (beeswax) painting

We Hold Our Grief in the Lungs, 2019
30” X 30”
Encaustic (beeswax) painting

detail of encaustic painting

detail of encaustic painting

Southern Resident Killer Whale Matrilines: J, K & L Pods, 2019 22” diameter (each), Cyanotype on cotton with embroidery & led lights.

Southern Resident Killer Whale Matrilines: J, K & L Pods, 2019
22” diameter (each),
Cyanotype on cotton with embroidery & led lights.

State of the Species, 2019 11” X 9” X 15” Diorama with taxidermy rat, bird nest, wooden box, collage, miniature rifle & jar, mica, bound natural history journals.

State of the Species, 2019
11” X 9” X 15”
Diorama with taxidermy rat, bird nest, wooden box, collage, miniature rifle & jar, mica, bound natural history journals.

Box 3, 2019 22” X 32” Mixed media in wooden box with altar shelf (silkscreen of pacific salmon on muslin, felt, bumble bee, vertebrae bone, garry oak bark, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects).

Box 3, 2019
22” X 32”
Mixed media in wooden box with altar shelf (silkscreen of pacific salmon on muslin, felt, bumble bee, vertebrae bone, garry oak bark, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects).

Souvenirs, 2019 5” X 7” handmade collage postcards

Souvenirs, 2019
5” X 7” handmade collage postcards

 

ARTIST STATEMENT

My work often addresses our complex relationship to the natural world. Much of my recent work specifically addresses what we have lost and what we still stand to lose—plants, animals, and wild spaces. I am particularly interested in the discourse of Natural History - a discipline that straddles social & cultural theory and science. This work came together after my science communications mentor Jay Ingram gifted me his entire collection of Natural History journals (1968 to 2014). While lugging these boxes of bound volumes around, I started to uncover that all this knowledge means little if we don’t do something with it. They very much felt like heavy objects to be used to press flowers or raise my computer monitor. Inside these journals were articles about climate change from the late 60s, stories on tigers at risk of extinction beside articles on the Lapps (people) of Sweden.

There is also the very real issue of eco-grief. Sadness and devastation at what is happening to our natural world, and feeling powerless to do much about it. While at times this work serves as a warning, at other times it is an elegy, mourning the loss of something irreplaceable. In “Box 1-3” I use found objects to recreate and reframe how we might encounter this kind of display in a natural history museum, a display that doesn’t strip the politics from the objects.

In “Southern Resident Killer Whale Matrilines: J, K & L Pods,” I have embroidered some of the female orca elders on the branches of the lungs. This family is facing many threats as an endangered species, but I wanted to acknowledge the calf born in 2018 to J35, who carried it on the surface for 17 days mourning its loss. If you try to find any scientific data on this calf, it is not there because scientific protocol is to only give a name and number to the calf if it has been with the pod for one year.

Some scientists estimate that 150-200 species of plant, insect, bird and mammals become extinct every 24 hours. “150/day” takes the form of 150 species I’ve encountered in the Fraser Valley and places them in sterile petri dishes to examine. As a whole, each one paints a picture of what it might be like to lose 150 species a day.


Box 2, 2019 22” X 32” Mixed media in wooden box with altar shelf (bird skeleton, found feathers, found bird nest, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects).

Box 2, 2019
22” X 32”
Mixed media in wooden box with altar shelf (bird skeleton, found feathers, found bird nest, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects).

Box 1, 2019 22” X 32” Deer pelvis in wooden box with mirrored mylar. Altar shelf with found bones, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects.

Box 1, 2019
22” X 32”
Deer pelvis in wooden box with mirrored mylar. Altar shelf with found bones, bound natural history journals, artist’s personal altar objects.

detail of Box 1

detail of Box 1

Blue, 2019 Two, 11” X 14” Cyanotype prints

Blue, 2019
Two, 11” X 14”
Cyanotype prints