Genevieve Robertson

Transformative Currents (2024)

Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean (Oceanside Museum of Art, 2024) examines the historical causes and ongoing effects of the cultural and environmental devastation of the Pacific Ocean and harnesses art’s potential to enact positive ecological change, both planetary and local. Bull Kelp is a continuation of the material explorations of Language for the Wrack Zone, in large-scale.

Bull Kelp, gouache, seawater and bitumen on paper, 100" x 166", 2024

Bull Kelp, detail image, 2024

Exhibition View, Transformative Currents: Art and Action in the Pacific Ocean, Oceanside Museam of Art, CA (17 August 2024 - 19 January 2025)

endless body (2023-2024)

Endless Body explores the interconnection and intelligence of the life systems of which we are part. Informed by submerged, somatic, glacial, riverine, and underground places, these works on paper span microscopic and expansive scales, from bone marrow to fungi and river networks. They are partially produced with materials from the watersheds that flow from the great divide in the Rocky Mountains, as they began with an interest in the rhizomatic cartography of spreading river systems that begins there. Silt, breastmilk, bitumen, soil, glacial till, iron oxide and coal; these materials are carried, produced and influenced by water. This work is informed by scholar Astrida Neimanis’s posthuman feminist theory exploring an expanded understanding of bodies of water, human and more-than-human, as porous and enmeshed. The drawings are prototyped to hang off the wall and can be experienced from both sides. More information on material origins, watersheds and territories can be found here.

This project has been generously supported by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance and the British Columbia Arts Council.

Endless Body, Installation prototype, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Endless Body, Installation prototype, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Endless Body, Installation prototype, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Milk (plateau), each sheet 6’ x 3.5’, ink, pencil crayon, pastel, glacial till (glacial milk), charcoal, coal, breastmilk, calcium carbonate, mica and graphite on kozuke paper, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Milk (plateau), detail, each sheet 6’ x 3.5’, ink, pencil crayon, pastel, glacial till (glacial milk), charcoal, coal, breastmilk, calcium carbonate, mica and graphite on kozuke paper, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Milk (plateau), detail, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Milk (plateau), detail, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Loam (understory), each sheet 6’ x 3.5’, Ink, gouache, pencil crayon, soil, iron ochre and bitumen on kozuke paper, 2023
Image: Kenton Doupe

Loam (understory), detail, 2023
Image: Kenton Doupe

Loam (understory), detail, 2023
Image: Kenton Doupe

Biome (estuary), each sheet 6’ x 3.5’, Ink, gouache, pencil crayon, silt, mud and bitumen on kozuke paper, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Biome (estuary), detail, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Biome (estuary), detail, 2024

Biome (estuary), detail of back, 2024

Loam (understory) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon and ink on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 16.5", 2023

Biome (estuary) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon, ink and bitumen on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 10.5 x 15.5", 2024

Milk (plateau) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon and iron ochre on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 16.5", 2024

Loam (understory) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon and ink on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 16.5", 2023

Bloom, pencil crayon and blue green algae on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 16.5", 2024

Loam (understory) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon and ink on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 16.5", 2024

Biome (estuary) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon, ink and bitumen on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 10.5 x 15", 2024

Biome (estuary) preparatory drawing, pencil crayon, blue green algae and iron ochre on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 10.25 x 14.5", 2023

Marrow, pencil crayon, blue green algae and charcoal on hemp paper handmade by Velma Bolyard, 11 x 17", 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

winter garden (2024)

These drawings are informed by soil from my partner’s pollinator garden in the winter months, viewed under a microscope. Some drawings directly reference the earthly biome of entwined mineral, animal, and vegetal matter, sampled directly from various depths in the garden. Others imagine larger complex systems directly beneath and above the garden: weather patterns; alluvial sedimentation and geologic strata; mycelial-arboreal networks. This drawing installation is in-process and is developing alongside Endless Body. Materials used in these drawings were collected in the garden and local region, on sn̓ʕay̓ckstx Sinixt Arrow Lakes and Yaqan Nukiy territory.

Winter Garden, in-process installation, each drawing 12”x12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden, in-process installation, each drawing 12”x12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden, in-process installation detail, each drawing 12”x12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #6, pencil, charcoal, ink and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #18, charcoal, ink and coal on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #14, ash and ink on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #7, charcoal, ink and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #8, ink on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #10, coal, charcoal, ink and ash on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #19, pencil crayon and ink on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #11, ash, soil, charcoal, ink and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #12, pastel, charcoal, ink, coal and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #13, pencil crayon, charcoal, coal, soil and ash on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #15, charcoal, ink, mica, graphite, soil and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #9, ash, soil and ink on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #16, pencil and ink on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden #17, coal, charcoal, soil and loam on paper, 12” x 12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

Winter Garden, in-process installation, each drawing 12”x12”, 2024
Image: Kenton Doupe

swamp studies (2021)

These oil studies were created at Merganser Pond on Saltspring Island. During a time of immobility and slowness this durational painting practice focused my physical exploration to a square kilometer. These studies, often produced in the dusk on slow walks around the swamp, led me to think about the regenerative/degenerative potential of stagnancy and decay. Swamps produce methane gas through anaerobic decomposition which occurs as a result of still water, and are also vital carbon sinks and ecosystems teeming with life under the murk. These paintings were exercises in slowness and reflection, where the creative process was mirrored in the effort to capture trees and branches reflected in still water.

swamp study 01 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 02 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 03 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 04 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 05 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 06 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 07 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 08 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 09 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 10 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 11 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 12 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

swamp study 15 | oil on canvas | 16” x 20” | 2021

And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames (2019-2021)

This project is a continuation of carbon study: walking in the dark . It features large-scale works on paper produced with regionally-collected carbon-based materials: found coal (from Elkview Operations, Crowsnest Highway, BC), found graphite (from Eagle Graphite Operations, Slocan Valley, BC) wildfire-derived charcoal (from the Lemon Creek wildfire site, BC), and wildfire-derived ash (Duhamel Creek wildfire site, BC). These drawings explore carbon as a pigment, an element, the basis of all living beings and life-processes through deep time, and the combusted substance which is central to climate change. An essay about this work, written by Caitlin Chaisson (and from which I gained the exhibition title), was recently published in Ecocene, an online environmental humanities journal. Here is a direct link.

Installation view, And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames (30 January-24 April 2021), Grand Forks Art Gallery, British Columbia.

Installation view, And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames, 2021

Photo: Kenton Doupe

Installation view, And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames, 2021

Photo: Kenton Doupe

Installation view, And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames (30 January-24 April 2021), Grand Forks Art Gallery, British Columbia.

Left to right: Amphibian, found coal, graphite and forest fire-derived charcoal on paper, 88” x 60”, 2020; Soot Moth, found coal, graphite and forest fire-derived charcoal on paper, 88” x 60”, 2021; Broad Leaf , found coal, graphite and forest fire-derived charcoal on paper, 88” x 60”, 2019

Installation view, And Even Dust Can Burst Into Flames (30 January-24 April 2021), Grand Forks Art Gallery, British Columbia.

Fragment (utaherpeton), found coal (from Elkview Operations, Crowsnest Highway, BC), found graphite (from Eagle Graphite Operations, Slocan Valley, BC) and wildfire-derived charcoal (from Lemon Creek Wildfire site, BC) on rag paper, 5’ x 9.5’, 2020

Fragment (utaherpeton), detail, 2020

Installation view, Extinction Study, found ash (collected at Duhamel Creek wildfire, B.C.) on paper, 90” x 98”, 2021 (collaboration with Jim Holyoak)

Photo: Kenton Doupe

Fishbone Lichen, found wildfire-derived charcoal (from Lemon Creek Wildfire site, BC) on rag paper, 30’’ x 44’’, 2020

Image: Kenton Doupe

Sockeye Fragment, found coal (from Elkview Operations, Crowsnest Highway, BC), found graphite (from Eagle Graphite Operations, Slocan Valley, BC) and wildfire-derived charcoal (from Lemon Creek Wildfire site, BC) on rag paper, 30’’ x 44’’, 2020

Image: Kenton Doupe

Pelvis, found coal (from Elkview Operations, Crowsnest Highway, BC), found graphite (from Eagle Graphite Operations, Slocan Valley, BC) and wildfire-derived charcoal (from Lemon Creek Wildfire site, BC) on rag paper, 30’’ x 44’’, 2020

Image: Kenton Doupe

Scull, found coal (from Elkview Operations, Crowsnest Highway, BC), found graphite (from Eagle Graphite Operations, Slocan Valley, BC) and wildfire-derived charcoal (from Lemon Creek Wildfire site, BC) on rag paper, 30’’ x 44’’, 2020

Image: Kenton Doupe

Linnea (recording loss), experiment detail, 2021

carbon study: walking in the dark (2018-2019)

This body of drawings uses pigments made with found carbon-based materials—coal, graphite, ash and wildfire-derived charcoal—collected in the East and West Kootenays where coal and graphite mining take place and climate-induced wildfires are increasing in severity. Gathered during walks to mine and forest fire sites, some of these materials are elementally linked to flora and fauna from the primordial past: both coal and graphite are produced from ancient living matter that has undergone immense transformation over millennia and are remnants of once-thriving ecosystems. This project records a sustained effort to capture an elemental and animate quality embedded in these materials and is meant to evoke carbon’s duality as a life-bearing element and the effects of its accelerated use as a synthetic hydrocarbon. Primarily produced during a residency at Access Gallery (Vancouver, BC) in 2019, the exhibition text by curator Katie Belcher can be found here.

Lichen, found coal and wildfire-derived charcoal on paper, 110” x 155”, 2019. Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Installation view, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark (12 January - 23 February) Access Gallery, Vancouver BC, 2019.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Broad Leaf, found coal, forest-fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 60” x 88”, 2020.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Installation view, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark (12 January - 23 February) Access Gallery, Vancouver BC, 2019.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Carbon Studies, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 11” x 14” each, 2019
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Scapula, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Ginkgo, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Vertebrae, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Bee (Apoidia), found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Pod II, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Jawbone, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Lepidodendron, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Protorthoptera, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Pod l, found coal, forest fire derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 30” x 44”, 2019
Photo: Blaine Campbell

Installation view | Access Gallery, Vancouver BC | found coal, charcoal and graphite on paper | 2019

Installation view, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark (12 January - 23 February) Access Gallery, Vancouver BC, 2019.
Photo: Rachel Topham Photography

Detail, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark, found coal, forest fire-derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 2019

Detail, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark, found coal, forest fire-derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 2019

Detail, Carbon Study: Walking in the Dark, found coal, forest fire-derived charcoal and graphite on paper, 2019

language for the wrack zone (2017-2019)

This series explores the wrack zone as both a life-sustaining place of biodiversity and a site were material remains of global trade wash up, changed through extreme marine conditions. Produced using seawater, crude bitumen, marine engine oil and gouache, these drawings mimic - on a small scale - the toxic chemical reactions that take place when oil spills into seawater. This work was included in the 2022 Orange County Museum Symposium Seachange: Transformative Currents for Action in the Pacific Ocean.

Whale Vertebrae, bitumen, coal, seawater and gouache on paper, 30 x 44”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Sea Lettuce (Ulva), bitumen, coal, seawater and gouache on paper, 30 x 44”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Seaweed (Unidentified), bitumen, coal, seawater and gouache on paper, 30 x 44”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Stingray, bitumen, coal, seawater and gouache on paper, 30 x 44”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Bladderwrack, bitumen, coal, seawater and gouache on paper, 30 x 44”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Installation view | Landfall and Departure: Epilogue (Listening to the Sea) | Nanaimo Art Gallery, Nanaimo BC | 2018

Cormorant, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Kelly James

Sugar Wrack, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Sympoiesis, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Sympoiesis (Filinia), bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Sandal, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Seaworm Case, bitumen, marine engine oil, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Hermit Crab Shell, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Flatfish, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Skipping Rope, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Kelly James

Bull Kelp, bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper, 22.5 x 30”, 2019

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Fish Stomach (Ghost), Seawater and gouache on paper, 18 x 24”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Plastic Bottles, Seawater and gouache on paper, 18 x 24”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Seaweed (unidentified), seawater and gouache on paper, 18 x 24”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

Fish Heart, Seawater and gouache on paper, 18 x 24”, 2017

Photo: Blaine Campbell

language for the wrack zone - grid (2017)

This work explores the wrack zone as both an originator of early complex life and a site were material remains of global trade wash up. Produced using seawater, bitumen, and gouache, these preliminary drawings imagine amorphous forms that exist between biology and geology, waste and treasure, petrification and liveliness, emergence and decay.

Untitled 13 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 20 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 16 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 09 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 38 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 11 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 42 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Untitled 53 | Bitumen, seawater and gouache on paper | 11 x 14" | 2017

Installation view | The Pacific, Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver BC | 2017

Installation view | The Pacific, Libby Leshgold Gallery, Vancouver BC | 2017 (with Isabel and Alfredo Aquilizan)

Study of a Lost Shoreline (2017-2019)

Study of a Lost Shoreline is a contribution to River Relations: A Beholder’s Share of the Columbia River, a two-year interdisciplinary artistic research project undertaken by a collective of artists and poets. River Relations responds to the extensive damming of the Columbia River and the upcoming renegotiation of the Columbia River Treaty.

Study of a Lost Shoreline is comprised of 170 individual drawings that were produced using silt from the Columbia’s Rosevelt, Wanapum, McNarry and Kinbasket reservoires. This project was most recently exhibited in Confluences: River rights/ Rites de rivière, at the SBC Gallery, Montreal QC in 2022. The exhibition text can be found here.

Study of a Lost Shoreline (Detail) | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 2017-2019

Study of a Lost Shoreline, River Relations, Touchstones Museum, Nelson BC, 2017

A Poem as Long as a River | By Rita Wong and Fred Wah | Installation View | Touchstones Museum, Nelson BC | 2017

Study of a Lost Shoreline, Confluences: River rights/ Rites de rivière, SBC Gallery, Montreal QC, 2022.

Study of a Lost Shoreline, Confluences: River rights/ Rites de rivière, SBC Gallery, Montreal QC, 2022.

013 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

026 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

008 (Roe) | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

009 (Yellow Headed Blackbird) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

010 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

164 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

027 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

094 | Handmade silt-based watercolour and ink on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

029 (Navicular Diatom) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

020 (Coelosphaerium) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

024 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

019 (Seedpod) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

054 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

045 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

037 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

040 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

039 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

114 (Fry) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

055 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

065 (Polychaete) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

070 (Fungus) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

071 (Northern Leopard Frog) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

093 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

067 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

100 (Cranefly Larvae) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

101 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

107 (Tetraspora) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

119 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

122 (Filinia) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

130 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

133 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

157 (Northern Sucker) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

131 (Clathrocyclas) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

047 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

062 (Bittern) | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

170 | Handmade silt-based watercolour on paper | 11 x 11" | 2017

Seachange (2019)

Produced with cyanobacteria (a form of marine phytoplankton), these drawings depict microscopic plankton, which play a vital role in producing oxygen and are at risk due to ocean warming and acidification. Reference images for this work were kindly shared by the Hakai Institute.

Image Credits: Kelly James

Larvae 1 | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Larvae 2 | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Nudibranch | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Lobata | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Polychaete | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Plankton (unidentified) | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Larvae 3 | Blue green algae, seawater and bitumen on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Plankton (Unidentified) | Blue green algae on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Calanoida | Blue green algae on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Diatom | Blue green algae on paper | 22.5 x 30” | 2019

Coral | Calcium carbonate and seawater on paper | 88 x 60” | 2019

Detail (coral) | Calcium carbonate and seawater on paper | 2019

Detail (seachange) | Blue green algae and seawater on paper | 2019

Detail (seachange) | Blue green algae, bitumen and seawater on paper | 2019

Leaning Out of Windows (2017)

This work is the result of an interaction between artists and physicists, prompted by Leaning Out of Windows a four-year SSHRCC funded interdisciplinary art and science project by Randy Lee Cutler and Ingrid Koenig.

During sustained conversations, physicists were asked to draw their answers to questions related to antimatter and artists visually responded. These collages layer all visual material that emerged.

With thanks to physicists Alex Wijangco and Edward Thoeng, and artist/designer Ron Luther.

What is electroweak baryogenesis? | Pencil and pen on collaged tracing paper and cellulose | 24 x 30" | 2017

What is a higgs boson bubble? | Pencil and pen on collaged tracing paper and cellulose | 24 x 30" | 2017

How would antimatter behave in regards to time? | Pencil and pen on collaged tracing paper and cellulose | 24 x 30" | 2017

What would a border between an antimatter region and a matter region look like? | Pencil and pen on collaged tracing paper and cellulose | 24 x 30" | 2017

Installation view | Emily Carr University of Art and Design | 2018

River Notes (2016)

River Notes maps a sustained inquiry and connection to the lower Fraser River. These drawings are linked to various places through site-derived plant and mineral-based pigments, and are a reflection of a wayfinding process in the studio and on site.

Acknowledgement Note: The Halq’eméylem words and place-names used to describe the origin of materials in this series were shared with me and used under the consultation of Sonny McHalsie, Stó:lõ archivist and cultural advisor; Brenda Crabtree, Stó:lõ and Nlaka’pamux artist and Emily Carr educator; and Laura Wee Lay Laq, Halq’eméylem language instructor and ceramicist.

Chuchuwálets / Way Out at the End

Pencil, gouache, silt (collected at Chuchuwálets *mouth of the Fraser River, way out at the end) river water (collected near Skwiyó *big eddy, stay away) on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Keratella Coalastrium / Rotifer

Goldenrod dye (collected in Semá:th *thick grass, level place lake), silt (collected at Seq'á:m *split, divide), tannin and mordant on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Cut Block / Qwequatchem

Gouache, wild blueberry dye (collected on Mount Chiyo:m or Lhílhyqey *always wild strawberries), mud (collected at Qwequatchem *echo, holler and hear your voice, answers you), tannin and mordant on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Salal / Heart on the Chest

Pencil crayon, salal berry dye (collected at Sts'a'i:les *heart on the chest, beating heart, laying on the chest), tannin and mordant on paper, 32 x 44, 2016

Skwiyó / Big Eddy, Stay Away

Gouache, river water (collected at Skwiyó) and silt (collected at Chuchuwálets *mouth of the Fraser River, way out at the end) on paper, 32 x 44, 2016

Quarry / Patch

Oil sand (collected on the Athabasca River) on paper, 32 x 44, 2016

Untitled Form

Goldenrod dye (collected in Semà:th *thick grass, level place lake), tannin and mordant on paper, 32 x 44, 2016

Installation View, Emily Carr University Concourse Gallery, 2016

Frontipoda / River Mite

Gouache, silt (collected at Chuchuwálets *mouth of the Fraser River, way out at the end), and river water (collected near Skwiyó *big eddy, stay away) on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Xwelítem / Hungry Ones / The New El Dorado

Gold leaf on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Cell / Island

Marine engine oil, gouache, silt (collected at eq'á:m *split, divide) river water (collected near Skwiyó *big eddy, stay away) on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Holler and Hear your Voice

Pencil crayon, salt, gouache, goldenrod dye (collected at Qwequatchem *echo, holler and hear your voice, answers you), tannin and mordant on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Salmon Nest

Charcoal (collected in Semà:th *thick grass, level place lake), gouache, river water (collected at Skwiyó *big eddy, stay away) and silt (collected at Seq'á:m *split, divide) on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016

Semá:th / Lost Lake

Charcoal (collected in Semà:th *thick grass, level place lake), gouache, wild blueberry dye (collected on Mount Chiyo:m or Lhílheqey *always wild strawberries) on paper | 18 x 24 | 2016