UPCOMING! Gwen MacGregor: Treelines – Here and There

Artist Statement

Treelines -Here and there is a new body of work that explores the connections between logging, alienation from the land and representations of the land. The source of the project is an intersection between two interests. The first, my lifelong endeavor to spend time in uninhabited places and old growth forests, with all the complexity and wisdom they contain. The second connects to my maternal grandfather, a Scottish immigrant who made a life for himself in the interior of BC. He had logging rights and a lumber yard that he developed post WWII. Although he made his living from logging he also had concerns about the way the industry was developing, with the increased use of clearcutting. As a response he donated some of his logging rights to the town of Fernie. The land was turned into a conservation area and remains one of the few parts of the valley that has never been logged and a place I return to often. The knowledge of his contradictory relationship to logging led me to start the Treelines project in Fernie and the highlands of Scotland – both places having experienced extensive logging over different time periods.

The exhibition at Nickle Galleries will include over 40 three dimensional crocheted trees I have made, of specific species that grow in BC and the highlands of Scotland. As well as realistic looking trees there will be a series made out of recycled plastic bags that are intentionally dystopic in character. Accompanying the trees will be a series of large scale photos and videos of the crocheted trees placed in situ in both places. When placed on the land and documented, the wee trees come across a bit whimsical and sad. But then that seems appropriate for the time of environmental crisis we are living in.

Curated by Michele Hardy, organized by Nickle Galleries.

 

Listen to Gwen MacGregor’s Nickle at Noon talk, Earthlings (recorded, October 8, 2020), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhvCdmtvNrI&t=26s