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Return to: Ingrid Koivukangas

Artist Statement


(2002)

My work is classified as environmental sculpture or land based art and encompasses many mediums including site specific ephemeral works, photography, video, sound, installation, collage and the internet. I work at and from sites in the natural world. Viewers are encouraged to leave gallery settings with maps to find ephemeral site specific works or sites that natural materials in the gallery came from. The gallery work itself has ranged from installations bringing site materials to the gallery via video, photography, sound to framed works that combine site photographs with topographic maps, aerial photographs, stereoscopic glasses, GPS readings and natural site materials -- that combined, act as a map to the site.

In a world that is constantly changing via incredible leaps in technology and unbelievable strains upon the environment I am constantly questioning our connection to the land itself and our loss of connection to that land. How do we arrive at a place where a balance has been found between technology and nature? At what point do we begin to realize that we are not moving through a passive landscape, but through a landscape that is a reflection of our having lost touch with the sacredness of the earth itself. Much of my work is an attempt to provide the viewer with a starting point to begin contemplating their own landscape and possibly their part in its preservation. Viewers are encouraged to leave the gallery to visit sites where my work can be found and to interact with the work in a natural setting.

I am never sure what will happen when I begin working in a new area or landscape. Each site that I choose, or perhaps chooses me, is for a different reason. I begin with photography and a visual documentation of a site and then a collection of natural materials. From there the site dictates what type of work will emerge. At a forest fire site shards of burned roots were hung from a ceiling and viewers were encouraged to open jars of burned materials, while the sound of quiet breathing filled the room. A canyon site involved working across approximately 5 kms, from a viewing station at the east site that invited viewers to travel to the west site to investigate what could be seen glinting on the other side - and in doing so asking them to become involved in the journey, to be aware of where they were physically, to become a part of the land. In Vancouver, on the westcoast of British Columbia, the weather played a large role in a piece called Rainfall. Rain was collected over three days and then put into 48" long glass microbiology tubes which were suspended behind a sheet of steel to look like a sheet of rain. Another westcoast piece, The Nautilus Project, involved the golden spiral being overlaid on a map of Vancouver and sites being chosen wherever land and water met and natural materials being gathered at the sites to be installed in the gallery for viewer access and interaction. Recently I had the opportunity to work in a completely different manner as a guest artist at the CBC Television Studios in Vancouver. The 5 Circle Project: Vancouver, was an installation based on the collection of site materials from 20 different sites in the lower mainland of Vancouver. A map of the lower mainland was overlaid with 5 concentric circles, radiating outwards from the CBC studios. Each circle had four sites chosen on it and each day I went to four sites to collect natural materials which became an installation in the studio. The installation was then exhibited, as a work in progress, on air for one week and online at the CBC ZeD site. The final phase of the project was the planting of four native-to-BC trees, at the final four sites along the outer circle. I planted trees because I was very aware of taking from the sites and wanted to give, or leave something behind in return. The trees were chosen for multiple reasons including their historical magical meanings: Western Red Cedar, Western Hemlock, Douglas Fir and Red Alder. The tree plantings were documented on mini DV tape, edited and can be found on the website. It was a strange experience to be showing work in a way that allowed global viewer access on multiple platforms with no need to visit an actual art gallery. This work has raised many questions for me, which I'm still thinking and writing about.

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