RECENT FILM WORK
Giant’s Head, 2067 (2019)
Giant’s Head mountain is a dead volcano that rises from the centre of Summerland, British Columbia. From the mountain’s peak aerial views of the town and its surrounding residential and agricultural areas extend to the mountains climbing west. At the top, under a monumental boulder and encased in concrete, is a time capsule to be opened on July 1st, 2067. Using Giant’s Head summit as a point of speculation, this film uses the lens of science fiction to consider how this rural landscape will appear in the future, and to explore the question, what is the ideal amount of change in a landscape over time?
Produced for Under the Beating Sun, From Summer to Summer, curated by Caitlin Chaisson.
Soundtrack by Stephen Carl O’Shea.
16mm film transferred to HD video, b/w, sound, 5’22”
As far upriver as you can go before having to switch to a pole (2015/18)
Chilliwack means "as far upriver as you can go before having to switch to a pole" in Halq’eméylem, the language of indigenous groups local to the area of Chilliwack (Ts’elxweyeqw). This meaning reflects the turning point in the anthropogenic influence, the moment at which an external dependency occurs. This project is presented as a document of the “super unnatural,” a term I have proposed to refer to the hidden anthropogenic influence within the naturalized landscape as a method to question what qualifies as the unnatural in nature. Chilliwack, as a site of agricultural production on the periphery of urban expansion, embodies the super unnatural.
Centred on a 16mm film projection of footage shot on location in Chilliwack, the various forms of the anthropogenically-altered landscape are represented within this project to build a discourse between the perception of what is natural and what is naturalized. The Vedder Canal, in Chilliwack, BC, for example, is the product of a large-scale dredging project that displaced the Sumas Lake in the early 20th century. It is a functioning monument to the displacement and dispossession of indigenous life: flora, fauna and people. Just as monuments that commemorate historical events and figures become obscured as history accumulates around them, so too is the history of the canal obscured by adaptation. It is visibly artificial, but has been naturalized.
Sound design by Pietro Sammarco.
16mm transferred to HD video, b/w, sound, 7'35"