Upcoming Events
May 25th, 2024
Come to the Cathedral Arts Festival Street Fair. Located at booth 2017, check out my prints available in a variety of sizes, postcards and original paintings!
2024 Alberta University of the Arts Gallery Crawl
November 7th 2024
Check out my work and other student work at the 2024 gallery crawl. Free Admission!
Flat Lands: Marina Dawson
This exhibit was created to critique the systems that reinforce and are responsible for the effects of climate change in Saskatchewan. It addresses the ongoing issue of annual forest fire disasters and how indigenous cultural burnings may be a key solution to the dilemma. It also explains how conservationism can both preserve nature and indigenous historical sites and how the Saskatchewan landscape deserves freedom from an exploitative capitalist system built on indigenous lands.
The Grassfire Series
Items 3-5
The Grassfire Series highlights how the frequent forest fires have led to the destruction of animal's homes, like the deer in the corner of the first piece. Using vibrant colours like bright oranges, I can indirectly refer to the warmth of the fire, and I can portray feelings of urgency and anxiety. This anxiety provokes conversations about why forest fires happen, how they displace and devastate humans, and the loss of both animal and human life. Before North America was colonized, several indigenous peoples would perform ritual burnings to protect and cultivate the land. But because of white colonialism, this practice was outlawed in 1874 in Canada, and now we suffer the consequences simply because someone forgot to stamp out a cigarette butt. I hope to connect this piece to my big idea because it prompts viewers to consider how indigenous ways of knowing are vital to conserving the lands and how we should indigenize our modes of conservationism.
The Radiate Series
Items 6-8
The radiate series explores the concept of the human body, the “harvested body,” in which, using my own body imprints and experience as a woman, as well as Eco-feminist theories, I draw lines between how we treat women in 2024 and how we treat the Saskatchewan landscape.
Much like how society places expectations on women to reproduce, polices a woman’s bodily autonomy, we do similar things to our landscape. We take and take - fracking for shale oil and tilling over native grasses and plants to harvest crops. The land is at its limits. There must be more discussions about how we have created a system that stole land from indigenous people and used that land to benefit Canadian farmers, along with how the capitalist system allows this to happen. We must discuss how to reduce pollution.
This series is hung so that it protrudes from the wall and confronts the viewer, the large scale towering over the visitors, asserting its importance in the room. This series is essential to the exhibition because it forces the viewer to consider hard truths about colonialism and agriculture while also humanizing the lands.
