Gabriela Garcia-Luna
figure 2a: Traced ink drawings based on figure 2 , enlarged to fit on four tarps. Streams, rivers, lakes and delta marshland are cut into the tarps to create connected and gaping overhead basins and paths that cast shadow maps on the floor and walls. Water Basin I (Saskatchewan River) , installation; 4 tarps, 359 x 1280 x 853 cm, 2018-2019
While mapping conventions were my starting point for the works in Confluence , my materials and methods upended those conventions and dissolved the smooth surface of the map into complex fragments. Those who entered the space of Confluence heard the babble of water 6 as my multi-scaled, reconfigured maps expanded the parameters of mapping. From video and audio to embroidered shirts, to tarps and books, Confluence exhibits multi-sensory modes of knowing that come closer to the complexity of land over and under water; of water shifting land and land directing water. p
Confluence was recently exhibited at the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery, February 4-May 1, 2022.
6 Cecelia Chen uses this term to describe the excess metaphorical 'noise' of water that may go beyond conventions of both mapping and knowing leading to experimental and diverse methods of representation. 'Mapping Waters: Thinking with Watery Places'. Thinking with Water, edited by Chen, MacLeod, and Neimanis, McGill-Queen’s UP, 2013. pp 278 – 298 Those who entered the space of Confluence literally heard the sound of water from three video/audio projections of freezing/melting ice/water from streams and rivers in the watershed.
Susan Shantz teaches studio art in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Saskatchewan. Her multi-media artwork, Confluence , considers the Saskatchewan watershed and was informed by collaborating with environmental scientists. https://www.susanshantz.com/confluence
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on site review 42: atlas :: being in place
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