We are all familiar with and embrace the history of the
Inuit vision a is illustrated in the beauty of their art. Their vision of the
transformation of animal to human and vice versa as a subject matter in their
work has intrigued me for many years. Now there is another transformation
taking place, that of the land. My purpose in this project is to explore the
environmental change and how I interpret it with southern visual language.
I myself feel a distinct disconnect from the effects of the
changing global climate on the north where it is the most dramatic. Here in a
growing city in the south I do notice a change, but the effect on my daily life
is negligible. I'm Canadian and should by definition be sensitive to what north
means other than a point on a compass. This is indeed virgin territory for me.
I strongly feel that this is a perfect albeit lamenting time
to look at the north with a visually examining eye. We need a visual record of
the environmental revolution taking place, its' effect upon the land and all
that walk upon it, the ocean and all that lives in it, and the sky and all that
flies through it.
It is essential that an awareness of the changing north is
seen by us in the south from as many angles as possible. We have all seen
reports in the media. People like Dr. David Suzuki have been instrumental in
cultivating that awareness. I see the task at hand as taking the awareness into the realm of the
creative. To visually portray the effect our progress is having upon a place
that is as ancient as the earth itself, to see the effect upon the human and
animal inhabitants that have lived with and of the land since time immemorial.
The scope of The
Tundra Project shall have two facets. The first will be large scale
paintings made out on the land. The paintings will provide both of our cultures
an opportunity to see the north as it is changing with southern visual
language. The second will be of a documentary video to chronicle the process of
the project and those bearing witness to it as well as their reflections upon
it.
The process of the project will entail propping the working
surface of full sheets of plywood,(8' x 4') against built easel structures out
on the land facing the plein air subject. Besides the painted imagery I will
also employ a router to carve out dream images that relate to the painted
composition, as I have done in past paintings. The paint itself, (oil) will be
applied using a number of brushes, scrapers, rollers and whatever else seems
fitting for each piece.
In keeping with past works the resulting pieces will neither
be photo real nor abstract but a distinctive hybrid. As far as how many
paintings will be executed I will only know after the beginning of the series,
but I do plan on taking approximately 2 months to complete the project.
I plan on employing an Inuit film maker for the project. The
film maker will have complete creative freedom as I want the project to be witnessed through northern eyes, This
element of the project is critical to the successful marriage of north and
south. There would also be a marriage of languages mixing of both Inuktitut and
English, a further enhancement of the project.
As I have never been to our youngest province I'm sure there
will be some tactical hurdles to get over. Finding a studio to store the work
and supplies is one that immediately comes to mind. Not to mention a place to
live for 6 -8 weeks.
My research so far is bearing some early fruit as I have
been making contact with some very helpful people in Rankin Inlet. Already I
have been in contact with one possible film maker for the documentary. There is
of course a lot more work to be done. As is evidenced by the breadth of my
portfolio and persisting length of my career hard work has never been an
obstacle that I could not deal with.
AGO finally got it right this year. Picasso was a fiasco from a curatorial point of view.
