Days of Plenty; An Archive of Abundance
Speaking through photographic history, this project compiles hundreds of appropriated images into collage works reflecting on human relationship with the living world. At a time when a re-framing of this relationship is urgently called for, these often disturbing works employ extraction as metaphor for the wider story of our attempts of dominion over the natural world. Emerging from my family’s history as colonial settlers working in extractive industries in British Columbia from 1887 through to today, and continuing with photographs collected from around the world, I intend to engage with questions around new paths of relation with the other-than-human.
Expected project completion: August 2023
Institutions providing archival imagery include:
Smithsonian Institute
National Library of Austria
McCord Stewart Museum
Royal BC Museum and Archives
US Library of Congress
Cortes Island Museum
Burton Historical Collection at the Detroit Public Library
North Dakota Archives
Cal Poly Humboldt Library Special Collections
Provincial Archives of Alberta
Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery
Hundreds of other photographs are in the artist's private collection, drawn from family archives, auction, vintage/charity/collectibles merchants, and other sources.
