In a Strange Place: Mia + Eric
Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna, BC - To March 23
If the first quarter of our present century can be characterized by a cultural movement, it might be the emergence of an eco art. Encompassing all disciplines and a range of media, not to mention belief systems both critical and informational, eco art, unlike the earth art that preceded it, carries with it an existential urgency, for without a life-sustaining planet, there can be no art. Though this proposition is not directly expressed in Mia Rushton and Eric Moschopedis’ internationally researched video work In a Strange Place (2024), it does come to mind.
Presented as part of Kelowna’s Living Things Festival, this nine-channel video installation focuses on the relationship between our forests and those who work to keep them healthy. These workers—comprising environmental activists, conservationists and land keepers— appear to the viewer on monitors arranged to approximate a forest grove. They are shot from the waist up, wearing homemade masks suggestive of a future forest creature, their bodies moving in slow motion. Whether these movements are work or dance related is an ambiguity that is in the service of the installation.
Moschopedis and Rushton are a neurodivergent, interdisciplinary artist team from Calgary, Alberta. Moschopedis comes from a theatre and performance background, Rushton from craft, printmaking and the visual arts. As a team they create long-term research and community-based projects that result in exhibitions, performances, public art, interventions and publications. With each iteration, In a Strange Place will include forest workers from that region. Production credits: Benjamin Hotz (videographer), Kris Demeanor (sound design), Maíra Wiener and Jenna Winter (collaborative producers), Maíra Wiener and Rachel Rose (artistic assistants), and Pam Beebe (Indigenous Relations Coordinator).
