Six artists stun with creative ability to bring nature home

TORONTO | Traditional territory of many nations – including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples – and now home to many diverse First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples — The David Suzuki Foundation and Rewilding Magazine today announced the winners of the inaugural Rewilding Arts Prize. Six Canadian artists and arts groups will each receive $2,000 prizes for creating innovative art that expresses the importance of nature in their communities.

“Now, more than ever, we need the power of art to move people to start taking action and better care of the world around us,” said renowned artist and Rewilding Arts Prize juror Christi Belcourt. “It was exciting to see how artists are interpreting the theme of rewilding and how their love for the earth is expressed through their art practice.”

The winners include multidisciplinary artist Khadija Baker, amateur lichenologist and artist Natasha Lavdovsky, textile artist Amanda McCavour, Anishinaabe artist Amber Sandy, architectural artist Justin Tyler Tate and theatrical group The Only Animal. Due to the overwhelming response to the call for submissions, seven runners-up were also selected.

“Art is an important and often overlooked aspect of conservation,” said Kat Tancock, co-founder of Rewilding Magazine. “If you want people to do something, you need to first make them feel something. That’s where art comes in. You can’t help but feel something when you look at the winners’ creations.”

The winners were selected by a jury of artists including visual artist, author and advocate Christi Belcourt; printmaker and illustrator Edward Fu-Chen Juan; visual artist and educator Charmaine Lurch; visual journalist and author Sarah Lazarovic and multidisciplinary street artist Nick Sweetman.

Winners will participate in networking workshops and have their works profiled by Rewilding Magazine.

“The creativity, thoughtfulness and wildness reflected in the art submitted was overwhelming and inspiring,” said visual journalist and Rewilding Arts Prize juror Sarah Lazarovic. “People say they wish they could have given everyone the prize, but in this case, I think the entire jury truly meant it. I hope we can re-Rewilding Arts Prize for years to come.”

– 30 –

To learn more about the Rewilding Arts Prize and the winning artists, visit www.davidsuzuki.org/artsprize.

For more information or a media interview, please contact:

Stefanie Carmichael, scarmichael@davidsuzuki.org, 437-221-4692

The David Suzuki Foundation (DavidSuzuki.org | @DavidSuzukiFdn) is a leading Canadian environmental non-profit organization, founded in 1990. Our mission is to protect nature’s diversity and the well-being of all life, now and for the future.

Rewilding Magazine (Rewildingmag.com |@Rewildingmag) is an independent publication dedicated to exploring the people, places, ideas and debates connected to the global rewilding movement. We are a resource for those seeking inspiration on how to improve the human relationship with the natural world, and a community for those who want to make the planet a better place for all.

 

BACKGROUNDER

2022 REWILDING ARTS PRIZE WINNERS [in alphabetical order]

KHADIJA BAKER

NATASHA LAVDOVSKY

  • Vancouver Island–based artist, amateur lichenologist and naturalist
  • Uses ephemeral, salvaged, scavenged and invasive natural materials to highlight interconnections to the ecologies that support domestic life, while questioning the human-nature dualism that is at the basis of colonial culture
  • Over four years created a moss-covered armchair in a remote coastal rainforest
  • https://www.instagram.com/virtual.tasha/

AMANDA McCAVOUR

THE ONLY ANIMAL

  • The Only Animal is a theatre company that brings arts and artists to the front lines of the climate emergency
  • Creates immersive work that arises from a deep engagement with place and theatrical adventurism that seeks to re/connect human nature with Nature
  • www.instagram.com/theonlyanimaltheatre/

AMBER SANDY

  • Anishinaabe artist, hide tanner, harvester and natural scientist
  • Art practice focuses on using natural elements from the land to reclaim traditional knowledge that was lost over generations because of colonialism, and to continue honouring relations with non-human kin
  • Created a purse using birch bark and home-tanned moose and deer hide
  • https://www.instagram.com/ambsandy/

JUSTIN TYLER TATE

2022 REWILDING ARTS PRIZE RUNNERS-UP [in alphabetical order]

  • ANNA BINTA DIALLO: Multidisciplinary Winnipeg-based visual artist raises questions about “wilderness” and how communities have attempted to exert control over the natural world.
  • LAARA CERMAN: Multidisciplinary B.C. artist explores the intersection of art, science and history by investigating patches of wildness in suburban and urban landscapes.
  • JANICE WRIGHT CHENEY: Artist from Fredericton, N.B., creates textile-based sculptures and installations.
  • HASHVEENAH MANOHARAN: Artist, ecologist and arborist merges interests in ecology and socio-ecological systems with identity as a conflict-induced immigrant to explore how people with multiple homelands and identities engage with urban natural spaces.
  • ANGELA MARSH: Quebec City–based arts educator creating ecologically situated community and school-based art. Creates “tapestries” from fragments of wild plants found in abandoned urban lots and engages in restoration projects.
  • SARAH PEEBLES: Toronto-based installation artist, composer and musician created Resonating Bodies, a series of installations focused on pollinators indigenous to natural and urban ecosystems.
  • COLE SWANSON: Cross-disciplinary artist and educator uses sound, installation, painting and sculpture to explore multispecies ecologies and more-than-human relations.