Ten Creatures (No Utopia is an Island), (2023)
MFA Thesis Exhibition
Open from 9am–5pm, March 20–25
Audain Gallery, Visual Arts Building, UVic
Oral examination: 2–4pm Friday, March 24th (Zoom link)
Closing reception: 7–9pm Friday, March 24th
Ten Creatures features a 10ft tall sculpture, roughly 12x12ft around. The sculpture consists of a docked survival raft, a large shelter built with salvaged industrial materials, and a muddy, eroding island diorama that supports it. Carved with graphemes of an unfamiliar language, and animated with sound and light, these structures and objects reveal details about their inhabitants and builders; ten strange, small creatures who use human debris, plant matter, and collaboration to find security in a collapsing climate. Animated with light and sound, the installation uses fiction and play to explore material realities of climate crisis and colonization. Ten Creatures uses materials like real and fake plant matter, salvaged metal cabinets, reclaimed wood, hand tools, and electronics. Its subject matter draws from sci-fi genre films, literature, and popular video game titles.