Assignment : AGGV Gallery Visit
"... how much more elaborately wrought is the frame through which our adult eyes survey the landscape. Foralthough we are accustomed to separate nature and human perception into two realms, they are, in factindivisible." Simon Schama, Landscape and Memory
Go to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and spend some time in Supernatural: Art,
Technology and the Forest.
Supernatural: Art, Technology and the Forest Twentieth century photography has made an important contributionto constructing the idea of the forest as natural heritage, promoting the beauty of national parks and forestlandscapes.
However, contemporary artists, drawing on this legacy, and working with new photo-basedtechnologies, are bringing a critical lens to this history of representation.
Supernatural: Art, Technology and the Forest features contemporary photo and video-based work by artists workingin British Columbia who are using technology to consider the idea of the forest as a social and cultural artefact.
Theexhibition explores how photographic technologies have mediated and shaped our relationship to forests and forestecologies; and how computer generated imaging and 3D technologies are suggesting the need for a new approach toour relationship with the trees.
The curatorial team describes the exhibition in the blurb above. Consider the exhibition in thecontext of these remarks as well as in relation to associated issues discussed in class.
Are there any ways in which you see the course theme manifest in the art works and/or exhibition design?
Here are some other questions that might help to orient your response to the exhibition:
What is your response to the exhibition and the curatorial and artists' concerns?
Does a sense of ‘place' come through in the exhibit?
Do any specific or works have a particular resonance for you? Why?
What struck you most? Why?
(Elaborate as fully as possible)
You might also like to include & consider the exhibition Picturing the Giants: The ChangingLandscapes of Emily Carr. What are the shared and contrasting considerations of the artistsand/or curatorial narratives between the two exhibits?