Artist Statement – Foothills

In the project Foothills a miniaturized model of the Alberta foothills is manufactured from garbage that has the potential to be recycled: cereal boxes, toilet paper rolls, and Tetra Paks. This representation of the landscape has not been derived from a specific ‘real’ location; rather it is constructed from my memory of a generalized place, the foothills – a mediation of the expectation of landscape. Several small drawings, watercolour paintings, photographs, and photocopies have been generated from the model. They act as yet another layer of mediation upon the already simulated landscape, echoing Jean Beaudrillard’s concerns with contemporary culture’s inability to distinguish image from reality – that with the pace humans are consuming the natural landscape all that will survive is the constructed “reality” of the simulated.