Meta Incognita – Unknown Limits
My recent print installation was part of the Ground Zero Printmakers annual group show at Fifty Fifty Arts Collective Gallery in Victoria, Canada, Feb/Mar 2017.
Its a 5′ x 2′ soft ground etched copper plate, with a 5′ etched print on a 5′ aluminum shelf.
The copper etched plate is a topographic map of the peninsula on Southern Baffin Island in Nunavut Territory, Canada. The etched print, a mirror image of the plate, runs the length of aluminium shelf.
The concept for this piece is deeply rooted in my early life.
I was born in the northern Yukon Territory of Canada. We also lived in several small communities in the Northwest Territory.
I was always aware of the vast wilderness beyond my house, my small town.
My playground had no limits in the north country. It was the tundra, the forest, wild cold rivers and lakes.
The north was space, quiet, simplicity and freedom.
The scale of this piece speaks to that: the vast horizon line, the white snow canvas of winter, reflection of water and sky.
My choice of materials, copper plate, refined aluminum, and a long roll of paper are the lands resources. Work in resource extraction industries, and supporting business, is what brings many to the north.
The project also reflects my interest in exploring the boundaries of printmaking.
Meta Incognita offers a sense of suspended stillness in a land that is unpeopled, unknowable and deeply romantic.