 Work

The Wild Ride
Glass Gallery, Kelowna Art Gallery
Kelowna, BC
October 2024 – March 2025

The Ride may not be the solution, but a good Ride is worth a good try.

In The Wild Ride, a patinated gas tank houses a young peace lily plant. A motocross stand supports the planter while a work light, clamped to the stand, spotlights the plant. Salvaged from a decommissioned dirt bike, the work aims to transform a tool of ecological conquest into a tool for ecological support.

Accompanying the work is an ambient, musical composition with spoken prose. The rugged, deepfaked voice of an actor, known for advertising Coors Light and Dodge Rams, punctuates the score. The prose combines corporate clichés, bumper sticker truisms, and the artist’s own statements repurposed to suggest earnest ways of being a better rider on a damaged planet.

Drawing from the artist’s small-town BC upbringing, the installation contrasts rural innovation with biases against nature. With a D.I.Y. approach both that is genuine and fraught, The Wild Ride attempts to foster care for nonhuman life.

– Project statement