Journey's Junction

Intersection and counterpoint are fundamental to these installations: incorporating both high art and commercial printmaking approaches, and working to conflate dichotomous notions of human and non-human bodies, within a world environment. Spawning Pacific Sockeye Salmon are depicted: beginning life in the Adams River in the interior of British Columbia, as smolts the salmon make their way to the Pacific Ocean, returning four years later, in a 500 km journey upstream, to lay and fertilize eggs: life and death. Imaged on the floor, the urban sprawl that has covered over many fish-bearing streams is subtly referenced.

In a different context, the three large circular shapes in the window at the front of the Monash University Faculty Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, initially appear from a distance as architectural elements complimenting the building’s Modernist architecture. A closer appraisal reveals wild spawning salmon. Peered at through the glass of the gallery window, the images appear as if in an aquarium. Distanced and put on display within an urban setting, they become exotic, allude to a false sense of abundance and to control, and speak to how we have come to view “the natural.”

5. Journey’s Junction, 1 of 3 images, 36” diameter vinyl laminate, 2011.

6. Journey’s Junction I, (installation mock-up), 4 archival pigment prints on the wall each 101.6 x 128.3 cm (40 x 50.5”), and circular floor piece 182.8cm (72”) diameter, 20011-12.

7. Journey’s Junction II, (installation mock-up), archival pigment print on wall, 111.67 x 138.4cm, and circular floor piece 182.8cm (72”) diameter, 20011-12.