Visual Arts, Grenfell Campus

What are you currently working on? What's your current research focus? 

I'm always balancing a number of different projects and new ideas. At the moment however, most of my time is being spent working through film negatives and test prints from photographs I have taken of swimming places (hot springs and pools) in Ísafjörður, Iceland and Bornholm, Denmark, over the past two years. 

 

When and why did you first feel inspired to work in the area of cold oceans? 

In February and March 2023, I was the artist-in-residence at ArtsIceland, an arts organization and gallery space in Ísafjörður, a small town in the Westfjords region of Iceland. During my residency, I researched how other northern climate islands compare or contrast with Newfoundland's relationship to its aquatic landscape. For instance, how do other communities engage with the Atlantic Ocean and their northern coastlines? What infrastructure have they built to facilitate that relationship?

This led me to photograph aquatic spaces. Places to swim of all kinds were such a constant topic of conversation within Iceland, and the more I spoke with people, the more I learned how these spaces supported connectivity within communities, as well as health, collective joy and pleasure in the environment.

The work I began in Iceland led to an invitation earlier this year from the art organization Beast, in Bornholm, Denmark, a small island in the Baltic Sea. In May this past year, I undertook a residency at Beast, where I continued to photograph coastal infrastructure, as well as ecological rewilding programs taking place in industrial forests on the island, which is set to become the very first waste-free zone in Europe by 2032.

 

Can you share a memory with us of an interesting day in your recent work/research life?

About halfway through my Icelandic residency, I was scheduled to fly out to meet my wife and daughter in the country's capital, Reykjavik, before returning to Ísafjörður with them. Ísafjörður is only a 40 minute flight from Reykjavik, however, it's one the most precarious landing routes in the world, as aircraft must make a 180 degree turn within a fjord to safely align themselves with the runway; any signs of inclement weather or visibility issues and flights are canceled. Just before takeoff, a small snow squall rolled in and my flight was canceled, and I wasn't sure how I would get to Reykjavik in time to meet my family. Then, all of the sudden, a group of cross-country skiers, all women, chartered a bus to Reykjavik and asked me if I wanted to join, so I did.

We left 20 minutes later, and I found myself on this bus with complete strangers going along a winding cliff-side highway with no guard rails and nearly zero-visibility; what I thought to be a minor snow squall, was actually much worse once we were on the road. However, at about three hours into the harrowing four hour journey, the night sky finally opened and a spectacular display of northern lights appeared along the mountainside - it was the very first time I had ever seen them! I got into Reykjavik at about 1 am, and later that morning, I met my wife and daughter at the airport. In the end, it all worked out.

Serendipitous experiences such as these give me a sense of the spaces I’m moving through, and inspire new ways for me to represent and express them through my work.

 

What makes Memorial particularly suited for your work?

Memorial University's relationships with other institutions in the Arctic, North Atlantic, and Northern climates, are really unique. And increasingly, we are building a network based on our shared environments, research, and resources. As an artist working in academia,I have opportunities to extend my practice to other communities, and benefit from an extended network of researchers and education institutions. This then informs the ways I approach my work in Newfoundland, through teaching, my art practice, and any curricular or programmatic endeavors the Visual Arts program may embark upon.

For instance, it is as a result of our relationship with the University Centre of the Westfjords in Ísafjörður that I learned of this residency opportunity at ArtsIceland, as my colleague, Professor Robert Scott, Director of the Bonne Bay Aquarium & Research Station, was in Ísafjörður earlier that year.

 

What is something you’d like for people to know about the ocean or the north?

That cold oceans and northern islands are just as captivating and diverse as those in the tropics.

Also, because cold oceans are less hospitable to humans than their southern counterparts, we have developed ingenious ways to engage with cold waters.

I am interested in both our cultural adaptations to northern climates, as well as the infrastructure that has been developed and will be developed in the future.