Current Projects
Seedling
Creative Producer
Artist Carey Newman
While carving the largest totem of his career, Kwakwaka’wakw and Coast Salish artist Carey Newman – Hayalthkin’geme, had a moment of personal reflection – an epiphany. Old growth ecosystems are rapidly disappearing, and with them, access to the cedar trees from which his people have carved totems for thousands of years. Initially, he began efforts to develop more sustainable methods of making totems using technology and second growth trees. He wanted to demonstrate to industry and policy makers that there are innovative alternatives to old growth logging. But as he continued with those efforts, he realised that although they responded to a problem, they lacked something – hope and aspiration. Rather than making art as a reaction to the past and present, he wanted to make something that would inspire a better future, something that would actively help to restore the complex and delicate ecosystems needed to support the once abundant old growth trees that are vital not only to his culture, but also the health of the planet.
While working at the University of Victoria as the Impact Chair for Indigenous Art Practices he began to imagine a totem for the future. A concept that could stimulate thinking about the moment we live in. A tangible catalyst for planetary health. A way to embrace Indigenous perspective and teleport the wisdom of the past far in the future, so that it can lead us in the present.
The idea: plant a seedling and utilize technology to carry forward the design, knowledge and commitment necessary to carve it into a totem when the tree is mature – 600 years in the future.
The Seedling makes a promise and an invitation. A 600 year promise to collectively care for a western red cedar, made real by all that keeping this commitment entails. Conceptually it is an intersection of art, time, technology, and Indigenous Knowledge. Tangibly it is a growing tree; a living reminder, that paired with the principles of Awi’nakola, will challenge the shape of laws, redefine the priorities of governance and transform our relationship with the land that sustains us. Drawing upon methods of Indigenous resurgence, the stewardship of this tree will define our way forward.
This is about more than the life of a single tree, an artwork, or even an ecosystem. Planting a seedling and committing to its care for generations are tangible steps toward reevaluating our relationships with the planet we inhabit. The gesture initiates the reestablishment of the complex and interdependent biodiversity of these vital ecosystems, and the ongoing commitment to its care nurtures the resurgence of the people and cultures that depend on them. We can't regenerate a forest within our lifetimes, but we can make a decision today to shift our perspectives and enable this to occur over multiple generations – providing hope by planting multiple “seeds” — not only in the ground, but also in our economies, our institutions and in our hearts.
Electric Rainbows
Director
Electric rainbows is a film that disrupts the tropes of nature cinema by the structure of the genre with horror - psych - . The film conjures the irrational fear of the natural world as proxy for our fear of the future and ultimately fear of the human condition. All living things are hard wired to react to external stimulation and the subsequent neurological impulse is the foundation of survival.
By paralleling the plight of wild salmon and humans - Electric rainbows aims to conjure an unseen view of survival where humans are on the same spectrum as nature.