Jardinage Urbain

Susan Gold, Kewy Janisse and I (Les jardinières) have collaborated together on several thematic installations and performative projects over the past several years. More recently, after a lengthy process of research and experimentation, we partnered on the creation of a multidisciplinary installation titled Jardinage urbain, as an opportunity to confront ecological loss in an increasingly homogenized built environment. Together, we explore the relationships between nature and the sprawling urban landscape.

Susan is interested in the way nature is understood and introduced into our lives. She works through images collected from museums, laboratories and more recently, from her own neighborhood, examining the ways in which urbanized people contend with the loss of, and their separation from nature and the sentiments of loss that can follow.

Kewy, an artist and scientist, questions the characteristics that separate and identify different types of landscape by utilizing satellite images. Through sewn textile sculptures or cloches, she presents her observations, depicting the predominant characteristics of each landscape. Landscapes are reduced to grey, green, red and yellow, representing various characteristics of different types of land.

My work results from my commitment to forge a respectful and sustainable relationship with the natural environment. Documentation of flora and fauna growth and its dispersal into the community is represented through photography, sound and painting. The intergenerational theme comes from a desire for continuity in the development of a healthy relationship with nature.

Thus, the struggle to bring the natural world into our lives can be seen in our work, individually and collectively.