Creative and Critical Studies, Faculty of (Okanagan)
DSpace
UBCO
Harvey, Natasha
Master of Fine Arts - MFA
University of British Columbia
This is a support paper for the MFA Thesis exhibition, Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics and Connection at the FINA Gallery at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and the group exhibition Plastic Grass at the Lake Country Art Gallery. The artwork includes large-scale collaged paintings that incorporate photographs of local forested areas, housing developments, vineyards and archived photographs of local early orchards from around the late 1800s. Repurposed building materials were also utilized in the collaged paintings as a representation of the impact our building practices and housing developments have on the local environment. Realistic, large-scale linocut relief prints of forests that have been clearcut for development accompany the paintings. The intricate, detailed prints are a sensitive contrast to the large textured, expressive paintings. Both art forms communicate human expansion and construction's detrimental effects on the environment.
LAYERED LANDSCAPES: LANDSCAPE ART, POLITICS AND CONNECTION by Natasha Harvey BFA, University of British Columbia, 2000 BEd, University of British Columbia, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Visual Arts) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) May 2023 © Natasha Harvey, 2023 ii The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics and Connection submitted by Natasha Harvey in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Fine Arts . Briar Craig, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor Nancy Holmes, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Shawn Serfas, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Dr. Greg Garrard, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, Sustainability University Examiner Additional Committee Members include: Katherine Pickering, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member iii Abstract This is a support paper for the MFA Thesis exhibition, Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics and Connection at the FINA Gallery at the University of British Columbia Okanagan and the group exhibition Plastic Grass at the Lake Country Art Gallery. The artwork includes large-scale collaged paintings that incorporate photographs of local forested areas, housing developments, vineyards and archived photographs of local early orchards from around the late 1800s. Repurposed building materials were also utilized in the collaged paintings as a representation of the impact our building practices and housing developments have on the local environment. Realistic, large-scale linocut relief prints of forests that have been clearcut for development accompany the paintings. The intricate, detailed prints are a sensitive contrast to the large textured, expressive paintings. Both art forms communicate human expansion and construction's detrimental effects on the environment. iv Lay Summary I spend time deepening my connection with the land in the Syilx peoples' unceded territories, walking and connecting through place-based research. Over time, during these walks, I have found the expansion of dwellings, and homes pushing up the mountainsides around and over wetlands, impacting wildlife habitat and ecology. Construction cuts into the land. Culture and economy reshape the horizon, thus rendering 'space' politically complex. Therefore, achieving the colonial landscape sublime is not a simple image of beauty without erasure. My artwork consists of a series of collaged landscape paintings and linocut prints, which seek to represent and communicate the effects of human interference on the environment while evoking the participatory spirit of love and beauty of nature. My work and research are specifically place-based in the Okanagan. I question whether my depictions of the landscape illustrate this complexity and thus encourage a conversation about our expanding contribution to the detriment of the land. v Table of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary .............................................................................................................................................. iv Table of Contents ......................................................................................................................................... v List of Figures ............................................................................................................................................. vi Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... vii Dedication .................................................................................................................................................. viii Introduction ................................................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework .......................................................................................................... 3 1.1. Landscape Art and Politics ...................................................................................................... 5 1.2. Contemporary Artists Depicting More Than a Beautiful View .............................................. 8 1.3 Art, Beauty and Social Change ............................................................................................... 10 1.4. This Place. The Okanagan Landscape and the Colonial Landscape Aesthetic ..................... 11 Chapter 2 Methodology ............................................................................................................................. 15 2.1. Materials ................................................................................................................................. 15 2.2. Walking .................................................................................................................................. 16 2.3. Photography ............................................................................................................................ 18 2.4 Collaged Paintings .................................................................................................................. 20 2.4.1 Documenting History .................................................................................................... 23 2.5. Linocuts .................................................................................................................................. 24 Chapter 3: Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 30 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................................... 31 Works Consulted ....................................................................................................................................... 33 vi List of Figures Figure 1. Natasha Harvey, Constructed Landscape, 2022, gallery view at the Lake Country Gallery, MFA thesis exhibition titled Plastic Grass ................................................................................................. 3 Figure 2. Natasha Harvey, view of MFA thesis exhibition titled Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics, and Connection, FINA Gallery, 2022 ................................................................................... 4 Figure 3. Photographer Unknown, Archived Photograph of an early orchard in Glenmore provided by the Okanagan Heritage Museum .......................................................................................................... 13 Figure 4. Natasha Harvey, 2021, survey peg marking future housing development. ............................. 17 Figure 5. Natasha Harvey, Okanagan Landscape, 2022, (detail), a footprint embedded in plaster. ......... 18 Figure 6. Natasha Harvey, 2021, Butterfly on Milkweed ................................................................... 19 Figure 7. Natasha Harvey, Okanagan Landscape, 2022 ..................................................................... 21 Figure 8. Natasha Harvey, Constructed Landscape, 2022 .................................................................. 22 Figure 9. Natasha Harvey, Development, 2021 ................................................................................ 27 Figure 10. Natasha Harvey, With Love, 2022 .................................................................................. 28 Figure 11. Natasha Harvey, Framed, 2022 ....................................................................................... 29 vii Acknowledgements I would like to begin by expressing gratitude for the privilege of working and living on the ancestral, unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people. I have been so fortunate to work with outstanding, talented and professional individuals while working on my Master of Fine Arts at the University of British Columbia Okanagan. I have huge gratitude for the opportunity to be mentored, advised and challenged by my supervisor Briar Craig. His encouragement, wisdom, incredible eye, and high expectations have made this journey profound. What an honour to be guided by a gifted artist and professor…the best. My committee members Shawn Serfas and Katherine Pickering have graciously given me their time, expertise and wonderful advice. They helped shape the work I produced and I am so thankful. Nancy Holmes mentored me throughout and was a big influence on the development of my creative context. She also edited my crazy writing; her brilliance was invaluable. I am thankful for the opportunity to work alongside and develop friendships with Michaela Bidgemohan, Scott Moore, Nasim Pirhadi, Sam Neal and many others at the university. I received invaluable support from Professors Aleksandra Dulic, Samuel Roy-Bois and Denise Kenney. I am appreciative of the support I received from Philip Wyness, Joanne Gervais, Shauna Oddleifson, Kaila Kalinocka, Lacia Vogel, and Michael Doerksen. Working on a master's degree has been a huge privilege. One that would not have been possible without the support of my family, my parents, husband, children and amazing friends. I am so grateful. viii Dedication For Daniel, Zara and Jude, you are my everything. 1 Introduction I would like to begin by respectfully acknowledging that the beautiful land I live, work, connect with, make art, and raise my children on is the unceded territory of the Syilx Okanagan people. I have immense gratitude to live on their land and work as an artist as an uninvited guest. I draw inspiration from the land here and am thankful for their stewardship and care. The artists have awoken. The power of the land as mediator and arbiter of our survival is recognized, appreciated, and painted in a persuasive, dynamic, and delicately convincing way. We are awakening to our real place here and reconciling ourselves with the land. It is as if we fell asleep, as Louis Riel prophesied, and awoke to places so impossibly beautiful that we had to pick up the brush and the pen and shout out to the world: “Wait, please wait and look at what we have here. We have these incredible gifts from the land and the waters of the earth.” Perhaps it is the realization that will finally bring us together- not just as Canadians, but also as humans of the world. Humans love art. Art answers questions about whom and what we love. Science may explain why we cannot go on the way we are, but art tells us why we do not want to…. It will bring us together in a new way-beginning with a deep and abiding love for the land. (Maracle 13) I chose Indigenous writer Lee Maracle’s impactful words to begin my thesis writing. Her essay “This Fractured Family Still Depends” On Its Mother was the first reading I found that informed my thesis research. It struck a chord and ignited a spark. In her essay, she implores that we learn from Indigenous ways of knowing the land and reconnecting with the earth. The degraded state of our environment is a result of colonial capitalist culture. Species have gone extinct, forests are clear-cut however, Maracle states that everyone belongs here. She wants Canadians to fall in love with the land as Indigenous people do. She describes us as a fractured family that still depends on its mother, the earth. We rely on the earth to survive and therefore must adopt a more respectful, reciprocal way of living. We are connected to nature; we are natural beings. Humans are capable of operating within the communal system of the ecosystem. Indigenous ways of knowing encourage the practice of a reciprocal method of existence where humans harmoniously exist with non-human beings. I am concerned for the environment. I am concerned about the state of the world that my children will inhabit in the future. I worry for the non-human beings who are affected by the consequences of our actions towards the environment. The question is, what can I do about it? The thesis artwork and 2 research I have immersed myself in have me considering, often uncomfortably, my position in the world around me and my impact on the environment. My artwork has been a means to explore this conflicted position and has brought about acknowledgement and changes in my personal worldview. Maracle states how the arts will communicate and bring us together in a loving way, to learn to respect the land. She gives hope that art can be the bridge that brings about change. This concept has informed my thesis artwork. It has encouraged a desire to communicate through my art practice how the land is affected by us and my position within the social and political nature of the landscape. 3 Chapter 1: Theoretical Framework This paper supports my artwork in the group MFA thesis exhibition at the Lake Country Art Gallery titled Plastic Grass, June - July 2022, and my solo thesis exhibition at the FINA Gallery at UBCO titled Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics and Connection, September – October 2022. My thesis artwork consists of a series of collaged landscape paintings and linocut prints which seek to represent and communicate the effects of human interference on the environment while evoking the participatory spirit of connection with nature. Figure 1. Natasha Harvey, Constructed Landscape, 2022, gallery view at the Lake Country Gallery, MFA thesis exhibition titled Plastic Grass 4 Figure 2. Natasha Harvey, view of MFA thesis exhibition titled Layered Landscapes: Landscape Art, Politics, and Connection, FINA Gallery, 2022 As I spend time deepening my connection with the land, walking and bonding through place-based research, I have found the expansion of dwellings and homes pushing up the mountainsides around and over wetlands, impacting wildlife habitat and ecology. Construction cuts into the land. Culture and economy reshape the horizon, thus rendering “space” politically complex. My research question was shaped by these walks and by my reading: Can my depictions of the landscape illustrate this complexity and thus encourage a conversation about the damage to the land? I am a mixed-media artist focused primarily on landscape depiction. I create large-scale collaged, mixed-media paintings and linocut relief prints. The process of researching for my thesis artwork has brought about massive changes in the way I understand my artistic production. Prior to beginning my studies, I was predominantly a commercial artist. I would make paintings for interior designers, houses, clients and corporations. I am ashamed to admit it never occurred to me to question the political nature of the land and landscape art. I was simply making work to sell without contextual thought of what I was depicting, why, and the constructs that surround my artistic landscape production. I failed to recognize the complexity and the political nature of the land. 5 This ignorance speaks of my personal place of privilege. The research I immersed myself in during the past two years of the MFA program at UBCO has allowed for an evolved awareness of my artistic practice and life. The theoretical framework that supports my artwork asks pressing questions concerning my artwork production of landscape depiction. The research involved to support my art includes the story of the land where I am living and working, the history and political nature of landscape art, art and sustainability, and connection with nature. To my excitement, a cohesive conceptual framework began to inform my creative practice and a reciprocal relationship between theory and visual making was formed. 0.1 Landscape Art and Politics Landscape…A picture of natural scenery, in its first English usage, said to date from the late sixteenth century. But history has switched things around so that the word can now signify, equally, nature-as-scenery, nature conceived of as a picture. By now, we should know what a bad idea that is. It means that the nonhuman world is conceived from a purely human vantage point, the land becoming mere setting, a sort of stage set for human perception or material exploitation. Ironically, by setting ourselves up as lords of creation, we humans ended up transforming the world in ways that threaten to make it uninhabitable for humans. (Schwabsky 13-14) I have been considering landscape painting. As a landscape artist, I have previously spent very little time considering the genre of landscape depiction, its history, contemporary landscape painting and the politics of land depiction. I enjoyed the process of making landscape-based images. Visually I was attracted to the beauty of the land. I endeavoured to recreate the landscape through my perception. When I am immersed in nature, I have a spiritual response to what I see and experience. For example, when I walk through a forest with sunlight filtering through the trees, I am emotionally affected by its beauty. I still strive to represent the unparalleled beauty of nature and land; however, the research I have done has raised my awareness of the land’s political nature and my relation to it. Barry Schwabs2222ky’s book Landscape Painting Now: From Pop Abstraction to New Romanticism helped inform this new awareness of landscape painting. It inspired consideration regarding historical landscape depiction and how the land is represented now in contemporary art. He observes how “in the twenty-first century, landscape painting is thriving” (13). Perhaps artists are feeling the necessity to document and comment on the land now as we are all experiencing the effects of climate change. There is an urgency for artists to communicate their 6 concerns regarding the state of the earth through their artwork. I personally, feel it is important to communicate my concerns about how we manipulate the land for our benefit. I am noticing local ecosystems being carved into for housing development as our population grows. I am aware of how my local environment is changing detrimentally. We are experiencing climate crisis and environmental degradation firsthand. As a landscape artist, I am recognizing that landscape depiction is more than appreciating its sublime beauty. Schwabsky says, “In the twenty-first century, the idea of landscape has become more fraught. We know that we can no longer ignore the reality of climate change. The earth, and our relation to it, seems to be inexorably changing before our eyes” (22). The landscape is political. It is complex and multi-layered. Economy, culture, systems and structures are all a part of the landscape. Therefore, it cannot be reduced to a simple but sublime image of beauty. The Canadian colonized landscape is transforming. Deforestation, mining, and construction are changing the land. Historical landscape paintings by settlers in Canada would have celebrated the wild nature and glorious views this country has to offer. They would have seen the potential the land had to offer perhaps without realizing that the land is not an infinite resource. Most settlers came to Canada in search of a better life. The wild lands of Canada would have been both daunting and hopeful. Environmental damage and degradation were not at the forefront of artists' consciences then, but things have changed. Now, with an acute awareness of our environmental situation, many artists have an altered perspective of the land, its use, its purpose, and its care. There is a changed perspective of landscape painting and its meaning. There is also a growing awareness in Canada of the atrocities the Indigenous people endured through colonization and the need for reconciliation. Colonization has changed the land in Canada. Extractive, capitalist methods of treating land as a resource has left it scarred. Land commodification and private property dissect the environment. The landscape is political. If the landscape is political, landscape painting in Canada is political. Like palimpsest manuscripts, geography is layered, and traces of history, culture and economy are evident. The Canadian landscape painting tradition has displayed man’s dominance over nature, illustrated the land’s economic value, and been used as a device to depict a romantic sublime beauty. Schwabsky notes that landscape painting is traditionally problematic in that the nonhuman world is often depicted from a human stance of superiority. The land becomes a setting for human exploitation (14). Marylin McKay writes about landscape art produced by French and English Canadian cultures between 1500 and 1950. She writes how after confederation in 1867, English Canadian artists started to prefer to paint and draw wilderness landscapes rather than pictorial farm scenes, partly to represent a source of resource wealth for the new 7 country. McKay describes how English artists were hired to travel to Canada to create images of a model colony as an advertisement for future colonizers to immigrate to Canada. The European dominion of Canada set out to erase the Indigenous people from the landscape, both in paintings and the actual landscape. McKay writes, “After confederation, having dominion over Canadian territory also implied a desire for the disappearance of Native Canadians. In 1867, the Indian Act placed all Native people on reservations where they were supposed to “become white” and so, in a sense, cease to exist” (155). John O’Brian described, “The Group of Seven’s Wildercentrism was tied symbiotically to capitalism and its postcolonial extensions. Landscape representation is always attached in some way to economic and social circumstances.” (31) The landscape is not a neutral vista waiting to be used for artists to represent their perceptions of the sublime. It has complex social and economic ties; I am beginning to recognize that to represent it without these ties could be a misinformed depiction. I realized I wanted my thesis landscape art to bring attention and focus to such issues. For example, the construction worker stereotype and Canadian patriarchal society that values strong virile masculinity are demonstrated through the use of construction materials in my paintings. The painting process is physical and building tools have been used in the process. The irony is that a middle-aged female artist made them, a mother, a feminist and a believer in all things matriarchal. I have included in my mixed media work photographs of housing developments, construction materials and architectural plans. Intertwined with the building materials, are indigenous plants and forests. There is a strained relationship between the natural world and the constructed one. The linocut prints are of forests that no longer exist and have been clearcut or are in the process of being cut down for housing development. The landscapes represent the detrimental effects of capitalism and land commodification. However, I want to be clear that although I am contesting important qualities of Canadian landscape painting and recognize the emptiness depicted in the landscape paintings of the Group of Seven, I find many of their paintings beautiful and inspiring. While looking at many of their works, I recognize the beauty of the wild areas in Canada. I am moved emotionally by the gorgeous depictions of the forests and waterways. Perhaps this emotional response to the beauty of the landscape could assist the viewer in connecting with nature. A spiritual response to beauty could potentially attract a participant in the artwork to revere the land more, to love the land more. This is an area of conflict for me. I love some of the group of Seven paintings and have drawn inspiration from their work over time. Tom Thompson’s The Jack Pine is lovely. His thick slightly abstracted application of paint and unusual colour palette makes the viewer aware that this is his response to an environment. He isn’t attempting to accurately depict what he sees in nature; he is responding to it. This looseness or expressiveness permits me to enter 8 the painting in a more emotional and intellectual way. The stylized painting technique gives a spiritual quality of reverence to the landscape. It had a profound effect on me when I saw it in the National Gallery of Canada. There is a paradox between loving pictorial landscape depiction and the desire to create artwork that addresses the difficult reality of how we are treating it. What is absent from these beautiful paintings? I feel that post-research, I can no longer depict the land in an untroubled way. An honest but hard look at the condition of the land is necessary. Lucy R. Lippard writes in Undermining: A Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West that “There is a point where artists too must take responsibility for the things and places they love, a point at which the colonization of magnificent scenery gives way to a more painfully focused vision of a fragile landscape and its bewildered inhabitants” (90). To me, this has been a challenge, to create artwork that is visually attractive and arresting yet unnerving in its challenging subject matter. 1.2 Contemporary Artists Depicting More Than a Beautiful View There is no such thing as just a landscape. The actual landscape is politized through the events that take place on it. I don’t think it is possible for me in general to think of the American landscape without thinking of the colonial history and colonial violence of that narrative…. All these social dynamics that are a part of that narrative, we don’t really talk about them in regard to the American landscape paintings, and so, what does it mean to paint a landscape and try to be an artist in these political moments? (Mehretu) Contemporary landscape art is thriving, and I have found artists whose works are impactful to me. Their paintings illustrate new perceptions of landscape art. They incorporate more than a beautiful view in their landscape depictions. Their work contextualizes a contemporary landscape. Julie Mehretu is an American artist whose landscape paintings are political. Her work layers photographic images with abstract marks. These layers blur the lines between representational subjects and abstraction. She describes abstraction as giving the painting some contextual freedom, giving viewers some space to find their own meaning (Mehretu). She begins her work with blurred or pixelated photographs or intricate architectural drawings. The work is layered and complex. Her brushstrokes illustrate movement, lyrical and poetic. She paints political landscapes that speak of history, colonization 9 and racism. Her work is large in scale and overwhelming, yet at the same time delicate and fragile. The paintings intertwine human structures and architecture with fragmented, organic marks, creating an imagined landscape that is contextually complex. Kim Dorland is a Canadian painter based out of Toronto, Ontario. Dorland’s landscapes have been inspired by Tom Thompson and the Group of Seven, however, not exclusively. His landscape depictions describe a variety of themes. He illustrates his innate fear of nature in his unnerving psychological landscape depiction. His work explores the relationship between urban life and the natural world. His paintings describe an anxious relationship with nature. His landscape paintings have a sinister or haunted quality. There is an underlying anxious tone. His discomfort with the woods and strained relationship with it is depicted through using disturbing dark muddy tones with shocks of electric or neon colour. He experiments with thick applications of paint and mixes mediums from oil paint to acrylic to spray paint. The nature he depicts is not pristine; it is tense and anxious, yet strangely beautiful and full of mystery and drama. Anslem Keifer is a German painter whose landscape paintings describe an experience of the land. His work is more about history, memory and experience than simple land representation. His paintings are built up with layers of materials and pull you in with intense perspectives and vanishing points, creating a palpable effect on the psyche. Nostalgic and emotional vistas are created with built-up texture and paint. His paintings often coexist with his installations within a space. The paintings push the boundaries of two-dimensional depiction and are further expanded with Keifer’s sculpture. Objects are incorporated, attached to the canvas or as a collaborative installation that creates meaning and experience. His work is based on his memory of the land. Culture, literary influences, national identity and spiritualism all influence his landscape depiction. These painters conceptually challenge the traditional genre of landscape painting. Their landscape depictions are theoretically layered and complex. The paintings are psychologically effective, emotional and political. Their work challenges both the material application of paint and includes interesting contextual meaning. This has affected my work. All the painters listed work on a very large scale. They paint in unconventional ways. Their landscapes are about human relationships with nature in various ways. Art can challenge tradition and instigate change. Landscape painting can transcend traditional land representation and communicate much more than a beautiful view. It is possible that art can challenge and communicate for positive change? 10 1.3 Art, Beauty and Social Change Many of these photographers have struggled with the beauty of ugliness. Photographs of wounds on the land, sculpturally destroyed or picturesque- graphic aerial shots or colorfully polluted waters- can be so striking that the message is overwhelmed and misery or horror is merely esthicized. On the other hand, beauty can powerfully convey difficult ideas by engaging people when they might otherwise turn away. Those who choose beauty for tragic subject matter are most effective when they’re also aware of the flipside- when their choice of beauty is a conscious means to counter brutality. (Lippard 176) It can bring about change in a positive, hopeful way. It can utilize beauty and aesthetics to capture attention through awe and inspiration. It can make visible, provoke, and encourage conversation and dialogue about difficult subjects. Its participatory nature makes the viewer an active part of the artwork’s message. The participatory nature of art involves an audience much more actively than scientific data or political information. Lippard’s quote made me think of Edward Burtynsky’s aerial photographs. They are stunning and draw you in with their beauty, however, when you get closer and see the content of the work, you realize the subject is tragic. I remember seeing his work in Toronto. They were large, beautiful scenes of pollution, garbage dumps, plastic and environmental devastation. They made me horrified and seriously consider changing my actions that contribute to the degradation of the earth. They encouraged me to illustrate the effects humans have on the land in my paintings. I wanted the Linocut prints to be beautiful, to draw the viewer in, only to discover the forests depicted are clear-cut. …..the change process to sustainability is “more than rational”. It is about emotions, desires and fears, lifestyles, identities and intuitive notions. It is equally about visions and expectations of the future or of multiple futures. In essence, changing towards sustainability is the art of being different, of using different products, designing different lifestyles and engaging in different practices, doing things in different ways and seeing reality in different ways. I started looking at the potential role of art and design in sustainability, and asked myself the question if they can play a role as change agents. For me, this was a logical step. (Dieleman 2) Collaboration between scientific research, political information and the arts is necessary. Art has the potential to engage on an emotional level. An aesthetic experience will help the viewer to engage with the work and feel hope whilst facing the truth. I think if the viewer is presented with the ugliness of our 11 environmental situation without wonder and beauty, they are less likely to make changes. If there is no hope, action is less likely to occur. Art is transformative by first capturing attention through beauty, a poetic, aesthetic experience or interaction. Landscape art has the potential to be transformative in that it can connect with its audience, the spirit and beauty of the non-human world. Poetic articulation leaves space for people to create their own links and understanding as they engage in experiences. Creative linking provides a more than rational reflective process for developing understanding and new visions for possible futures. Poetic articulation is a powerful mechanism for emotional arousal and can link cognition and affect – science and art – so that they can work together to motivate change. (Dulic, Angle, Sheppard, 58) Dieleman describes sustainability as the process of finding new ways to live, experience and view the world. Art as inquiry is a logical tool to instigate change toward sustainability. The process of making art aligns with the process of making change because the process of making art is exploration, discovery, problem-solving, intuition, and lateral thinking. A collaboration or relationship between art, science and politics is the most effective way to communicate and bring about change. It could be possible for art to encourage an inquiry about construction methods and types of housing developments in the Okanagan. The type of construction occurring here is detrimental to the local ecosystem. This place is in dire need of a changed perspective. 1.4 This Place. The Okanagan Landscape and the Colonial Landscape Aesthetic The evidence demonstrates that, historically, the aesthetic preferences of both Syilx and European settlers were shaped by their differing economic adaptations. The European aesthetic, however, was also distinct by virtue of the fact that it had been created as a marketing tool well before most settlers arrived in the valley. It provided settlers with a ready-made European perspective but also with a charter for colonization and ecological transformation. (Wagner 30) My landscape art is site-specific to the place I am working and living in. The Okanagan Valley, the unceded territory of the Syilx and Okanagan people, is a dry region, a desert. Wagner describes how settler culture and colonialism have brought agricultural development to the Okanagan Valley. This agricultural development imposed a landscape aesthetic on the ecology here, an aesthetic that comes from another place and culture. 12 In the early 1900s, the Okanagan was advertised as an oasis for fruit tree farmers. Irrigation tracks were being built and the Okanagan became green. There was a ribbon of green that would wind its way around the lakes. This ribbon of green was created through irrigation technologies and the actual natural landscape of the Okanagan was a backdrop to this unnatural new landscape created by settlers. Syilx/Okanagan people’s perception of the landscape was very different from the settler’s perception of the landscape. The settler landscape aesthetic contrasts with the Syilx in that the oasis aesthetic relies on water use and irrigation. The settler's vision of what the land should look like is a foreign landscape that differs greatly from the natural ecology of this place. A Northern European settler landscape aesthetic is driven by the economy by capitalist gain it is a market to advertise to gain wealth from this place it is based on transforming the ecology here into something where capital gain can be made. Wagner writes how a colonial landscape perspective isn’t sustainable as it transforms ecologies rather than conserves or sustains them. Settler culture changes the ecology and transforms the adopted environment based on cultural practices developed elsewhere. I have illustrated this aesthetic contrast by layering archived photographs of newly planted orchards in Glenmore from around the late 1800s. The large, collaged painting titled Constructed Landscape has these archive photos layered among images of contemporary housing developments. The other collaged painting Okanagan Landscape focuses on flora native to the Okanagan such as milkweed, wetland grasses and natural forests. The forests depicted in this painting have an orange hue that alludes to fires, a growing reality of climate change. Both paintings are interjected with found construction materials. The construction materials collaged onto the Okanagan landscape symbolize the detrimental effects of construction and housing development on the land and its natural habitats. Large houses with manicured green grass are now cutting through the natural landscape. Green golf courses are developed alongside these developments. If the settler landscape aesthetic remains dominant, sustainability will not be achieved. We need to adapt and develop a new landscape aesthetic that’s based on the local ecology. 13 Figure 3. Photographer Unknown, Archived Photograph of an early orchard in Glenmore provided by the Okanagan Heritage Museum My husband is a contractor. We have a local construction business, and we build high-end landscape architecture, custom swimming pools and homes. We participate in manicuring and manipulating the landscape. Green grass, geometric ponds and infinity pools replace natural habitats. My family’s livelihood comes from the commodification and development of the landscape. At the same time, I observe the detrimental construction management and practices happening in the Okanagan and recognize my part in it. The paradox is heartbreaking. Through my thesis artwork and research, I am exploring and learning about my position within this paradox. I grew up in the Okanagan and am of settler descent. I have seen vast changes in the local area. As the population grows, the city sprawls out. Concrete covers the ground; roads are expanded, and homes are built. We require dwellings, and houses to shelter us though I wonder if the types of development occurring in this area are the most responsible for the well-being and care of all living organisms. I am aware of my part in the care, or lack thereof, of the local environment. I am a part of the problem. I am sure I am also not alone in this predicament with these discrepancies. I know I am not doing enough to be a part of a solution. I know that I must create larger changes in my life and lifestyle for the sake of my 14 non-human community and the future of my children, and future generations. I have begun to make changes by developing my artwork and research as a tool for communication. Knowledge and awareness are the beginning but not enough. The next steps are to begin to utilize more sustainable art materials and to seriously adjust my personal lifestyle. My thesis artwork is an observation and reflection on the expanding human development in the natural world, a reflection of our relationship with nature. My research questions how the creation of art can bring an awareness of our relationship with nature and potentially encourage a change in behaviours and perspectives towards the more-than-human world. My landscape art communicates a message, a reminder of how we are treating the land. My linocut depiction of local forests illustrates the beauty of the natural environment. The title and description of the work explain that the forests have been clear-cut. They are a memorial, a remembrance of the beauty that is lost. I don’t believe I need to quote information about the effects deforestation has on the environment. It is my goal to elicit an emotional response. At the MFA exhibition opening, I was speaking to a woman about the mixed media painting, Constructed Landscape, in the show. She was attracted to the work, however, she expressed how sad she found them. She recognized the landscape as local and could decipher and recognize the destructive effects development has had on local habitats. She said how the work made her think about the animals that are displaced as a result of construction. The logo of the Ram board was visible throughout the collaged painting. The logo is a simplified illustration of a Ram. The product is a thick, protective paper covering used to protect flooring during construction. I use it as a collage element in my paintings. This depiction made her think about the big horned sheep that live locally as well as the many species that are negatively affected by development. Building and construction as an industry are detrimental to the land. Her comment was impactful to me as this is exactly what my conceptual, theoretical framework was meant to communicate. 15 Chapter 2 Methodology 2.1 Materials The stretcher bars that frame my canvases are made of wood. Much of the paper I use for printmaking and collage is made of forestry products or trees. The use of wood for creative production is not equal to the scale of the construction industry in regard to its damage to the environment but has an impact, nonetheless. The stretcher frame created to hang my painting in the group MFA exhibition utilized wood salvaged from a building site. It was important for me to use wood destined for the landfill. Peter Wohlleben makes relatable comparisons to social habits trees exhibit that are like ours in his book The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate: Discoveries from a Secret World. It is his intention for humans to realize that trees are more than a resource or product to use, waste, and consume. He demonstrates that the trees' social systems, families, guardians and children are similar to ours. He describes the trees' human attributes and social behaviours. I think it is important that we shift our perception of trees from resource to sentient living creatures. Perhaps this change could affect how forestry products are consumed. The construction industry, specifically suburban housing developments rely on wood as a material. Forested areas are cleared for construction. I have seen firsthand the waste that is involved in building a home. The amount of wood that is sent to landfill is astounding. My artistic practice has an impact on the environment. My collaged work utilizes paper, acrylic paint and canvas. The linocut prints are done with oil-based ink. I have made attempts to source recycled paper for my large-scale photographs only to find that the local printing companies can only source paper that is composed of 30% recycled paper. I am trying to minimize my impact by re-using construction waste as the primary material in my collages. I am collaging with materials found in construction waste bins and architectural drawings from previous buildings. At times I question my production of art and feel guilty that I am producing more stuff to add to the world already suffocating with material things. However, I can’t imagine a world without art and could never refrain from making it. I will continue to pursue artistic endeavours but strive to work sustainably. 16 2.2 Walking As an artist, I believe that walking offers scope for inventiveness- Walking is an experience not an object- Walking ‘uses’ what is already there- Walking is not an art material- Every piece of art I produce results from the experiences of specific walks (Hamish Fulton 2) It all starts with walking. I try to get into nature as much as I can. While there I observe and open my senses. I notice grass swaying, smell the sharp fragrance of sagebrush, the sweet vanilla of the pine tree’s bark, wild roses and the musky earth underfoot. I watch birds with envy. I encounter animals; snakes, deer, rodents and bears. It is in these moments that I feel truly alive, grounded and connected in the here and now. I try to illustrate this moment when I feel a connection with nature. It is my desire to convey my perceived experience of this time using collaged photographs, found materials and expressive mark-making with paint. My connection with nature through walking is profound however, I live in an urban area. Most of my hikes or walks in the natural areas I describe are just on the outskirts of the city. Many hiking trails near town have new developments butting against them. Wineries and golf courses are replacing natural habitats, rendering certain species at risk. I wanted to comment on this through my work. Within my realm of everyday life and experience, it was the most noticeable aspect of how we are affecting our local ecology. I decided to specifically focus on local construction and the expansion of tourist development. The work begins with my immersion in nature, but the nature I speak of is not completely wild. It is experienced on a trail made by humans, perhaps started by deer. There are houses on the perimeter. There are plastic trail markers, bright orange sprayed tags that signify where future development will be. In some areas, there are signs indicating private property. Other times, I come across a wall of concrete that is utilized for the city’s water use and power lines. These observations do not negate the pleasure I get from walking in nature; the grounded feeling and connectedness I feel are necessary to change our perception of nature from resource to kin. However, the walks on the fringe of the city illustrate the effects we have on non-humans and the control we exert over nature. These observations are the heart of this body of work. 17 Figure 4. Natasha Harvey, 2021, survey peg marking future housing development. My paintings and linocut prints depict a reverence for nature. The landscape is based on my memory and experience while walking. However, the desire to evoke this appreciation of nature is juxtaposed with building materials. This poetic contrast describes my observations of human interaction with nature. Used Ram board, a thick cardboard paper used as a protective floor covering when drywalling and painting, is stapled and collaged onto the painting. The used board has splatters of drywall paste and accumulative dust embedded in it. These construction materials are battered, weathered and worked on. They also reflect how construction batters the natural environment. There are workers’ footprints, and evidence of the labour involved in construction. The footprints are a metaphor for the labour involved in the making of the paintings. They also represent time and memory. They are something that has already happened, an occurrence from the past but represented within the artwork. I use salvaged tar paper, found in the garbage. It is a protective material used to seal and waterproof buildings. Tyvek building wrap is utilized as well. These commercial building materials are also observed while walking. Tyvek and tar paper are seen from the trails wrapped around homes that are being built. In construction, these materials end up invisible, unseen layers hidden during the building process, but are witnessed during my 18 walks. I see the stages of construction developing on the fringes of the forest. Using building materials in my artwork that end up unseen gives the work a layered, palimpsest sense of time passing. These materials exposed, show both space and time in the collaged work. Figure 5. Natasha Harvey, Okanagan Landscape, 2022, (detail), a footprint embedded in plaster. 2.3 Photography The eye might see one at a different time from another and, therefore, space is made out of these marks. I think that’s how space is made in pictures: each mark asks the eye to sense different time. I think that is why photographs came to feel flatter and flatter for me, because in a photograph the time is of course the same on every section of the surface. In a painting this cannot be the case because a hand moving across it means time is involved and a line drawn: it has time in it because it has a beginning, a middle and an end and somehow this helps to make a space. I have often thought that maybe that’s how it works in real life. (Hockney 103,104) 19 Photography is an integral part of my art. The large collages begin with photographs and the linocut prints are based on photographic imagery. From below or above, I will document from different angles, extreme close-ups, and macro views of natural life. When I’m back in the studio, I have the images printed out as large as possible on paper. I spread the images I have taken from my walks out on my studio floor. I begin to tear them up and reassemble them to create a perceived landscape based on memory. I can create an alternative landscape by collaging photos that include my experience of a specific place. Figure 6. Natasha Harvey, 2021, Butterfly on Milkweed The tearing and fragmentation of the photographs give a new reality to the imagery based on my memory. The torn and assembled photos illustrate a sense of time and space. This depiction is more “real” than the tight frame of photographs. David Hockney explains this well. He relates the photo collage with Picasso’s cubist work as more realistic than anything else. It is more realistic because it breaks away from the flat, two-dimensional image that only illustrates one point of view at one frozen moment in time. He talks about how Picasso’s work depicts time and space. It illustrates in a two-dimensional format, another dimension, one that exists in real-time and space. Hockney attempted to illustrate this with his photo collages. He was taking frozen fragments of time, captured by a photograph and arranging them to 20 create a more realistic interpretation of a moment. He also describes the edges of a canvas, as looking through a keyhole. He wanted to break away from the solid framed image to get closer to a real experience. Visually depicting time and space through the fragmentation of photography is more realistic than a traditional 2-dimensional image. I want to depict a world that I am in, rather than viewing it from a distance. I question how can landscape paintings be made in such a way that the viewer feels as though they are in it, a part of it. That is what I am trying to create with my paintings... a connectedness to the land in which I am painting. By deconstructing multiple images and reassembling them, I am representing my perception of my relationship with nature. My perception becomes reality through art. Indigenous artist Vicki Kelly writes, “The soul reaches, strains through all its faculties to observe the ‘other’, and in the act of beholding, embraces that reality and brings it near at hand, presses it into the very heart of our understanding so ultimately, we also know. In artistic creation, this invisible, inarticulate, unformed reality can then precipitate into our knowing, into a form, such that the essence or quintessential nature of this shape is shown. The spirit behind the act of shaping is shown, and its signature is revealed” (62). This describes succinctly my artistic process of first immersing myself in an experience through walking and thus “beholding”, the photographs are taken and then manipulated, collaged or carved and become my “knowing” resulting in the “shaping” of the final work. 2.4 Collaged Paintings So you have this multitude of experiences in a short amount of time and then as you process the painting and participate with the image and start to really unravel the painting. You have to travel through it and something you just saw becomes a memory in your experience. So it is very cinematic in that way. It is a time-based experience. Then when you step back you have this other vision of this painting that is very different from up close. So these different perspectives, these numbers of levels of reading, feeling and engaging and then when you are back again, you see the whole image again. The whole image is a particular structure that has emerged and then completely breaks up with these smaller paintings and images and structure. (Mehretu) The experience of viewing the collaged paintings changes from where you stand in relation to the work. There are areas of detail and texture that can be experienced when in close proximity. When you stand 21 away from the painting, a completely different structure emerges. This is the exciting aspect of scale. The collaged paintings are large in size. This allows a variety of areas within the whole composition. I have completed two large-format landscape paintings. They are 7’X19’ in size. This large scale is meant to feel encompassing and expansive. It is meant to feel like looking into a landscape. The size also works as a barrier, like constructed buildings, it is imposing and obstructive. The paintings have a physical presence. The size reflects the act of building and the labour involved. It lends itself well to the found and salvaged materials. The first painting titled Okanagan Landscape depicts the forest. The photographs used in this work are of forests that have been cut down for housing developments. I have used vibrant orange spray paint to illustrate the devastating forest fires that affected this area during the summer of 2021. This painting was started in the fall after the fire season. The Okanagan had been heavily impacted by the fires. The orange spray alluded to flames. I was also referencing a neon orange spray paint that is used to mark property lines while surveying. This paint is frequently used in construction. It is a bright indication of where clearing, cutting, digging, forming and building will occur. It is a symbol of land commodification. It is the beginning and outlines where we manipulate the land. Figure 7. Natasha Harvey, Okanagan Landscape, 2022 22 The second painting is titled Constructed Landscape. The surface of the painting has been worked aggressively. Layers were removed using a palm sander. Drywall paste was applied generously with plaster knives. This painting was treated with a similar approach to various processes of trades in construction. Layers were added with staples, then sanded and scraped. Collaged photographs of the Okanagan landscape are intersected with archived photographs of early colonial settler's orchards and contemporary housing developments. All imagery depicted is of the same specific location in Kelowna. The layered images describe the changing landscape through time. Figure 8. Natasha Harvey, Constructed Landscape, 2022 Juxtaposing images and attempting to combine found materials, photographs and painting techniques is endless play, exploration and discovery. This combination gives tight and linear alongside messy and chaotic moments to weave a layered poetic narrative. Collaged layers build up and create meaning. I intend to illustrate the many contextual layers within a landscape such as its geographic history, development, and ecology, all overlapping, built up, parts eroding and distressed. 23 Building my paintings is laborious. It is physical work that mimics the labour involved when constructing a home. The paintings reflect industry with their large scale and overbearing proportion. Working large is a somatic experience. I move my whole body, pulling and pushing paint across the surface. If I am a part of nature, the evidence of my movement on the canvas strengthens the idea of building a connection between humans and the non-human world. The abstract paint that my body makes is like a footprint left on the forest floor. These marks are evidence of an organic, physical, living, natural body. The work depicts a reverence for nature using photographs, perspective, and the creation of a landscape based on my memory and experience. However, the desire to evoke this appreciation of nature is juxtaposed with building materials. Tar paper and Tyvek building wrap are used to create the landscapes. I discovered that by ripping the Tyvek material, it became light and fluffy like clouds. Tar paper has a dark, heaviness to it that gives visual depth. The Ram board was torn, stapled and collaged onto the painting. The used board has splats of drywall paste and accumulative dust embedded. Construction workers’ footprints are embedded in the plaster. These footprints act as evidence of a human action that occurred in a specific place and time. This artifact addresses the core meaning of the paintings, the destructive impact we have on our local natural environment through development and expansion. I manipulate landscape paintings by combining abstract painting techniques and collage. There is a relationship between the photograph’s tight recognizable realism and the more open communication of abstraction. The abstraction allows a gap or a space for the viewer to explore creatively. It is an openness that breaths without definition. The abstract planes within the landscape invite the viewers to enter the work on their own terms. The photographs give reference to the real while the abstracted looseness of the paint asks for interpretation. The combination of the two with found materials demands a response. 2.4.1 Documenting History I was fascinated again by this kind of psycho-geography, or places that carry memory, places that have this unrest embedded in the sort of fabric. So, I made a whole body of paintings, this is the first body of paintings that dealt with that and used the materials of the streets, the palimpsest of merchant culture. I was looking at this painting, I was really trying to connect an abstraction that looked out at things that weren’t so easy and trying to go through my own imagination and history of abstraction and lay both on top of it. I think that through the alchemy of the studio there is still hope. I pull it into the studio, and it goes back and forth and hopefully, I win and 24 there is some brightness in me. You know, but you don’t look away from the darker things, and that is where this area is starting to come from, outside of abstraction to place. (Bradford) Mark Bradford is speaking about a painting titled Scorched Earth. The painting illustrates a map of Tulsa Oklahoma. It describes the area that was called black wall street and was burnt to the ground during a race riot in 1921. He is pushing the boundaries of historical abstract painting by incorporating context that is based on a specific event and place. He balances abstraction and social context beautifully with this painting. The work pushes the edges of realism and abstraction. I am attracted to his description of a psycho-geography, a place with memory. The cityTulsa is fraught with a charged history. He is beautifully representing this place and its history through his abstraction, a layered palimpsest of paper and context, creating a psycho-geography that is emotional and vulnerable. I am inspired by his use of materials and the aesthetic qualities of his paintings along with the contextual depth of his work. It is my desire to achieve this with my landscape paintings as well. I want to expose layers of history and geography metaphorically by physically cutting through a palimpsest of paper, found objects and photographs. Erasing, adding and exposing the various layers of landscape. I am layering photographs of the same location from different times on the collaged paintings. The archive photos of orchards in Glenmore are overlapped with images of a housing development in the same area. Drywall paste from a house being built in that place has been used to blend the images. I have built a new landscape made of specific photographic documentation combined with my memory of growing up there. It is a psycho-geography, charged with memory and history. 2.5 Linocuts I have only recently learned the process of linocut printmaking. Although this is a new medium for me, it feels like I have been doing it forever. I love every aspect of this exciting and historic technique. Linocut printmaking is an extension of wood-block carving. It is a process of removal. The areas you carve are the areas devoid of ink. During the printing process, I have found that this subtractive way of working coincides with my painting and drawing methods as well. Taking materials away is just as important to me as the application of ink, paint or graphite. The removal of information and materials gives depth to the work in that it gives space and clarity. It also creates an added dimension to the artwork because when something is removed or erased, there is always a trace of what was once there. With linocut, the carved-25 out areas are imprinted and embossed when run through the press. The material erasure or removal gives an awareness of history or a sense of what could have been there. This process of removal in linocut printmaking is a strong metaphor for the change in ecosystems and habitats in our wild areas during construction and development. I am drawn to repetitive actions. I find the process of linocut printing meditative and repetitive. The slow, contemplative process allows for clarity to build over time. However, although the action of carving is slow at times, I have learned to use the carving tools similarly to drawing tools to make fast, expressive marks. The act of drawing with carving tools is new and exciting to me and, in my opinion, creates an interesting, printed aesthetic. The linocut prints depict forested wild landscapes from photos I had taken one year prior. The trees illustrated no longer exist. In their place, houses have been built or are in the process of construction. The prints are large and detailed. The process is meticulous; it takes time, love and care. The trees have been clear-cut for housing development. I grew up spending time in the forests represented. The images are nostalgic. They are commemorative. Documenting forests that have been clear-cut through the slow process of relief printmaking is like a memorial of sorts. I am honouring and remembering the natural spaces and ecosystems that have been cut down, paved, built on and landscaped. This veneration is created to motivate discussion and awareness concerning our impact on the more than human world. The process for the linocut prints begins with walking and documenting. For my thesis artwork, I chose to document the forests in Wilden, in the Glenmore area, as that was where I spent my childhood and have seen the most changes. However, there are changes and developments happening all over the Okanagan. I lament the loss of the forests and trees and can only imagine how the Syilx Okanagan people feel. I took the photos knowing that construction would be happening and then photographed the area afterwards. The contrast was staggering. I simplify and posterize the photograph to a stark black-and-white tonal image and screen-print it onto my linoleum plate. This enables me to achieve a photographic quality in the resulting print. I chip away, slowly removing information. This process couldn’t be further from the experience of building my collaged paintings in that it is quiet, slow, and meditative. I can spend time with my family while I carve. I can take over the kitchen table and work while they chat with me. It is nice. However, there are surprising similarities as well. Both involve labour. Although the carving process is calm and quiet, it is laborious, it requires strength, albeit only in my right hand, but it is physically challenging and is hard work. It requires perseverance. The process, like the process of decollage, is one of removal. I am taking parts away in order to make a successful image. I was 26 interested to discover that removal is a huge part of my artistic process. When I paint, I apply the paint only to wipe most of it away. It is the ghost of what remains that interests me. The ghost image that is exposed excites me. Layering collage and plaster only to sand areas away reveals treasures of ambiguity. Vague areas that are open to interpretation and closer contemplation. Therefore, the act of removing or carving the areas of linoleum to create light inevitably attracts me. Ultimately, all my work involves labour and revelation. I have completed three linocut relief prints during the MFA program. The first is titled, Development. It depicts a forest that is experienced at eye level, as though you were looking into it or about to enter it. The perspective is encompassing and expansive. It feels as though you could walk into it. It feels familiar to me. I have seen this view many times. It was a forested area near where I grew up, one that we would walk often. Light filters through to the forest floor. It makes its way from the sun through the trees and foliage. The sunlight is speckled and soft when it makes its way to the ground at the base of the trees. It was important to me to successfully portray light in this print. I chose a photograph to work from that illustrated dappled sunlight when walking amongst trees on a sunny day. That sensation of feeling and seeing light in this way is special. I find it spectacularly beautiful to experience this light when in the forest and wanted to mimic the impression in the print. 27 Figure 9. Natasha Harvey, Development, 2021 The second print titled With Love employs a ground-view perspective. It is as though you are sitting or lying on the forest floor, looking up at the trees. This is reminiscent of childhood. Gazing up at the trees from a low vantage point. The trees feel as though they are watching over you, protective and knowing. I find the trees from this perspective visually calming, like an embrace. The trees surrounding you have a human quality, observant and quiet. They are encompassing and empathetic. It was my intention for this print to feel nostalgic and vulnerable. I began carving more expressive marks with this print, making my hand more evident. 28 Figure 10. Natasha Harvey, With Love, 2022 The final print titled Framed is a scene viewed from above. The photograph was taken with a drone. The viewer is looking down on the forest, removed. This perspective is dominant. We look at the scene from far away, from a perspective we would never see naturally. There is nothing familiar or nostalgic with this perspective. It is documentation but is removed and distant, scientific and factual. This perspective refers to aerial photography often used to advertise real estate and golf courses. Aerial photography is also the main tool to reproduce site-specific land art. Lastly, photographs are often taken from an airplane or a drone for the purpose of surveying. For example, industry and forestry will contract photographers to capture images from above with the intention to survey and document the land as an extractive resource. The aerial photograph in this print captures the trees, the forest light and shadow but differs from the other two in that I included the frame of a house, in the progress of being built. I included the construction that this thesis body of work is about. I question which print will be most effective in communicating my message. The final print is more overt, but I feel the first two are more emotionally charged. 29 Figure 11. Natasha Harvey, Framed, 2022 While documenting the forest, I am considering perspective and composition. Perspective plays an important role in these pieces. Once I take the photos, I manipulate them using photoshop with a posturized black-and-white effect. I want the prints to retain a semblance of the photograph. The tight frame of the photograph makes it frozen in time. Photographic documentation of the forest, attempting to capture the forest, making it eternal, as memory fades. This act is similar to the collection of revered photographs of loved ones. We don’t trust our memories. The photographic documentation makes the forest real; otherwise, it may seem like it never existed. Our memory of the specific place would fade and blur. 30 Chapter 3: Conclusion The idea that “nature is a place where we are not” has ruled for centuries; at least since Newton, nature, like women, has been seen as powerful, uncontrollable and threatening, on one hand, and inferior and subordinate (though necessary and convenient) to human culture, on the other. Neil Smith puts it, “Placing nature on pedestals ultimately uncontrollable merely renders ‘her’ a worthy opponent: romancing nature as foreplay for rape. By being so aggressive, by threatening to control, nature is asking for it. Simultaneously woman and other, she is M/Other Nature… The Big Guy directs while M/Other Nature does the work…”. In the last twenty years or so, the word “environment” has replaced and demythologized a great part of what was once considered Mother Nature, but it allows us to maintain the separation: humans are the center, surrounded by everything else, reflecting the way Western culture has been built in opposition to nature. (Lippard,12) In our modern world of technology and industry, we have pulled away from our connection to nature. As the Anthropocene expands and the climate crisis progresses, it is crucial for us to mend this broken bond. Human beings are not the center with nature separate, surrounding us. We are a part of a community that includes other living organisms and the land. If we perceive nature as separate from us, we will continue to view it as a resource. Landscape painting has placed nature on a pedestal, thus rendering the land a stage where we hold dominion and control. I am suggesting that landscape depiction doesn’t need to come from a position of human superiority. Landscape art is important now more than ever. We are experiencing detrimental effects of climate change, forest fires and floods. The human population is growing rapidly thus negatively affecting the environment. Our opinions and actions regarding the care of the land need to change substantially. Art can be used as a catalyst for change. Barry Schwabsky noted, “art remains a means for paying attention to ourselves, the world around us, and the relation between the two. Or are they two? The philosopher and sociologist Bruno Latour has argued that it is precisely in making such distinctions as those between subject and object, nature and culture, that we have gone wrong” (22). Lee Maracle wrote, “Humans love art. Art answers questions about whom and what we love” (13). I have experienced artwork that has altered my own perception of how the world works, of how I perceive the world. I know that landscape painting has the capacity to motivate an audience to pay attention. I attempt to create a feeling of veneration to motivate discussion and awareness concerning our impact on ecology. This discourse could potentially encourage choices of care and contingency towards the environment. Rather than seeing the environment as a resource to be used, a connection could alter this perception from resource to relative, as we are all elemental. 31 Works Cited Bradford, Mark. Mark Bradford: In Conversation/ Artist’s Talk/ Tate, YouTube, uploaded by Tate Talks, 18/11/2019 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4isoSmHKiU Dieleman, Hans. "Sustainability, Art and Reflexivity." Sustainability: A new frontier for the arts and cultures. 2008. pp. 108- 146. Dulic, Aleksandra, Jeannette Angel, and Stephen Sheppard. Designing Futures: Inquiry in Climate Change Communication. Futures 81, 2016. 54-67. Fulton, Hamish. "Words From Walks." Walking Bodies, 2020. 167. Hockney, David. That’s The Way I See It. Edited by Nikos Stangos. Chronicle Books, 1993. 101- 111. Kelly, Vicki. “To See, To Know, To Shape, To Show: The Path of an Indigenous Artist.” Arts-Based and Contemplative Practices in Research and Teaching. Edited by Susan Walsh, Barbara Bickel and Carl Leggo. Routledge, 2015. 46 – 65. Lippard, Lucy R. The Lure of the Local: Senses of Place in a Multicentered Society. New York: New Press, 1997. Lippard, Lucy R. Undermining: a Wild Ride in Words and Images Through Land Use Politics in the Changing West. The New Press, 2014. Maracle, Lee. “This Fractured Family Still Depends On Its Mother”. The Good Lands: Canada Through the Eyes of Artists. Figure 1. 2017. Mcay, Marylin J. Picturing the Land: Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500-1950. McGill-Queens University Press, 2011 Mehretu, Julie. Julie Mehretu: Politicicized Landscapes/ Art21 “Extended Play”, YouTube, uploaded by Art21, 13/09/2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcM3lF4Es_s 32 O’Brian, John., White, Peter. Beyond Wilderness: The Group of Seven, Canadian Identity, and Contemporary Art. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2017 Schwabsky, Barry. “Painting With the Flow of the World”. Landscape Painting Now: From Pop Abstraction to New Romanticism. D.A.P., 2019. 33 Works Consulted Abram, David. The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World. Vintage Books, 1996, 2017 Armstrong, Jeannette C. "Land Speaking." Speaking for the Generations: Native Writers on Writing. Ed. Simon J Ortiz. Tuscon: Arizona UP, 1998. 175-94. Armstrong, J. C. Constructing Indigeneity: Syilx Okanagan Oraliture and tmixwcentrism. Universität Greifswald. 2009 Bennet, Jane. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Duke University Press, 2010. Colomina, Beatriz. “Spaces Within Spaces: Jessica Stockholder”. Robert Lehman: Lectures on Contemporay Art, Dia Art Foundation. 2004 Curtis, Adam. Is the Art World Responsible for Trump? Filmmaker Adam Curtis on Why Self-Expression Is Tearing Society Apart. Interview by Loney Abrams. Dec 12 2016. https://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/qa/adam-curtis-hypernormalisation-interview-54468 Demos, T.J. Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology. Sternberg Press, Berlin, 2016 Dewey, John. Art as Experience. Penguin, 2005. (originally published in 1934) Gomez-Barris, Macarena, The Extractive Zone: Social Ecologies and Decolonial Perspective, Duke University Press, 2017 Haraway, Donna. Staying With the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, Duke University Press, 2016 Hill, Don. Listening to Stones: Learning in Leroy Little Bear’s Laboratory: Dialogue in the World Outside. Alberta Views. September, 2008: 40-45. https://albertaviews.ca/listening-to-stones/?fbclid=IwAR0f7eqsfe8yXISDoiatmGfXMSIwKc2lNSp8Gi7_0njNBdwespNV-NL8DAs 34 Johnson, Mark. “Embodied Knowing Through Art.” The Routledge Companion to Research in the Arts. Edited by Michael Biggs and Henrik Karlsson. Routledge, 2011. 141- 151. Kagan, Sacha. Art and Sustainability: Connecting Patterns for a Culture of Complexity. Vol. 25. transcript Verlag, 2014. Karlsson, Rasmus. "Three Metaphors for Sustainability in the Anthropocene." The Anthropocene Review 3.1 (2016): 23-32. Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, 2013. LeGuin, Ursula K. “The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction.” Dancing at the Edge of the World: Thoughts on Words, Women, Places. Harper & Row, 1989.165- 170, Markey, Mary Ann. Examining Biophilia and Societal Indifference to Environmental Protection, IGI Global, 2021. Miller, Brenda. “A Braided Heart: Shaping the Lyric Essay.” Writing Creative Nonfiction. Ed n Studies, 30(2,3), 71–78. Rose, Deborah Bird. "Connectivity Thinking, Animism, and the Pursuit of Liveliness." Educational Theory 67.4 (2017): 491-508. The Memorial to Sir Wilfrid Laurier. http://www.kanakabarband.ca/downloads/memorial-to-sir-wilfred-laurier.pdf Tuck, Eve, and Wayne Yang. Decolonization is Not a Metaphor, Decolonization Indigeneity, Education and Society. Vol. 1, 2012, pp. 1-40. Wagner, John R. "Landscape aesthetics, water, and settler colonialism in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia." Journal of Ecological Anthropology 12.1 (2008): 22-38. Wagner, John R., and Kasondra White. "Water and development in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia." Journal of enterprising communities: People and places in the global economy (2009). Wohlleben, Peter. The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate, Discoveries from a Secret World. David Suzuki Institute, Greystone Books Ltd, 2015
Thesis/Dissertation
eng
Visual Arts
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
Graduate
Craig, Briar, 1961-
Layered landscapes : landscape art, politics and connection
Text