DECONSTRUCTING AN ANTHROPOCENTRIC VIEW: DRAWING ENTANGLEMENTS

The research done during my MFA program at Emily Carr University has focused on finding strategies in the arts that reveal unseen entanglements between human and nonhuman beings and how the ‘act of being seen’ can bring about changes in human-centric dominated systems. I invite the viewer to re-think and re-imagine our social reality, while becoming aware of the complexities of deconstructing an anthropocentric worldview, and the predicament of precarious populations(1) and the inevitability of extinction cascades. The artwork aims to engage the viewer to be mindful of the issues that arise out of the precariousness of our times that shape our shared conditions of living. I have been drawn to explorations that meld and transform materials that allude to “intra-actions” and “new becomings” by creating images on an overhead projector. Documenting degradation over time allows people to notice the changes instead of accepting them as the norm. The processes and materials used in the works I have created evoke a sense of living/dying bodies, tensions and entanglements, oppressed voices overwhelmed by dominant ones, and, through the themes of absence/presence, communicate the global loss of living species. A few strategies explored through my artwork include a shift in perspective, a change in experiencing time, re-membering presences and documenting traces. These approaches raise questions around memory, loss, and the possibilities of re-making in the present with the acknowledgement of other beings, with the hope that in thinking differently will bring about a shift towards compassion and an awareness of everyone’s responsibility in this collective trouble.