Fine Arts Building (FAB) Gallery
Room 1-01 Fine Arts Building, University of Alberta. 8807 112 street
Listening to the Land: Lara Felsing and Christina Battle
June 8 through July 6, 2024
Wednesday - Friday: 11:00 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday: 12:00 PM - 3:00 PM
Christina Battle seeds are meant to disperse, video installation, 2022. Video still: Courtesy of the artist.
Exhibit Description
An exhibition rooted in collaboration, conversation, and knowledge-sharing, Listening to the Land presents recent works by Treaty 6 based artists Christina Battle and Lara Felsing. Considering our relationships to land and community, as well as the potential of artistic gesture during times of crisis, this exhibition invites viewers to engage in conversations centering caring and careful perspectives of approach.
Lara Felsing, Gratitude Blanket detail. Second-hand cotton thread, linen, canvas and floral broadcloth dyed with spruce cones, Saskatoon berries, Sweetgrass, tobacco, cedar, sage, Chaga, strawberries, dandelion and bee pollen, 2023. Courtesy of the Artist.
Artist Information:
Lara Felsing is an interdisciplinary Métis artist from Northern Alberta, Canada. Her practice explores the interconnectedness of all life on Earth and aims to bring awareness to the necessity of caring for the Earth and all living beings. Felsing’s material practice and research are approached with ‘two-eyed seeing’, with one eye looking through a lens of Indigenous teachings and the other through a lens of Western knowledge. Traditional plant harvesting is at the core of her practice, and Felsing collects the likes of roots, leaves, berries, petals, spruce tips and pine needles to create compostable paintings, sculptures and blankets that speak to the necessity to honor and show gratitude for the gifts provided by Mother Earth. www.larafelsing.com
Christina Battle is an artist based in amiskwacîwâskahikan, (also known as Edmonton, Alberta), within the Aspen Parkland: the transition zone where prairie and forest meet. Her practice focuses on thinking deeply about the concept of disaster: its complexity, and the intricacies that are entwined within it. Through this research, Battle looks closer to both online models and plant systems for strategies to learn from, and for ways we might help to frame and strengthen such response. Much of this work extends from her recent PhD dissertation (2020) which looked closely at community responses to disaster: the ways in which they take shape, and especially to how artistic and online models might help to frame and strengthen such response. Battle’s practice prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, and failure; she has a B.Sc. with specialization in Environmental Biology from the University of Alberta, a certificate in Film Studies from Ryerson (now Toronto Metropolitan) University, an MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute, and a PhD in Art & Visual Culture from the University of Western Ontario. She has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator. www.cbattle.com