EVELYN KOLIJN
CAAF Residency st[art]@Art Central, March – April 2011
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
I want to publicly share my neo-romantic sense of wonder in the beauty of patterns found in nature. My interest in the sciences of natural history, biology and complexity theory is expressed through printmaking and small, sculptural installations made from found synthetic materials. By constructing organisms from plastic and Styrofoam, which share the same source as petroleum, I connect consequences of consumption of fossil fuels in our society with the beauty and fragility of the natural world. Recent work focused on environmental pressures in marine environments. Coral reefs are a personal issue, as I lived in the Caribbean during my teens and I have witnessed the spectacular decline of these reefs today. In Alberta, coral reefs exist as ancient geological formations, in which the province’s oil-wealth is sequestered. For the new work, I intend to include the living prairie-ecosystem. In addition of using synthetic materials, I have been thinking about doing the opposite, and focus on use of natural and local materials: “100-mile art materials”.
An invitation the be part of the Artist Ranch project for the 2011 Stampede Western Showcase , provides a perfect opportunity and subject matter to use local materials and put these new directions into practice. I have collected information and material on “ranch-ecology” – the relationship between the ranch and the land. I may narrow my focus on grasses, plants and insects. I have collected physical material from the ranch like old wooden structures, slabs of pine and aspen and dried prairie grasses. I want to use this material in small-scale sculptural pieces and printmaking.