Art for ecosystems
Works capture the beauty and fragility of Island
A 16-foot message-filled shoreline mural and 17 emotional paintings of PEI are on exhibit this summer at the Canadian Centre for Climate Change and Adaptation (CCCCA).
Julea Hope Boswell’s Shifting Shores mural and William Montelpare’s exhibit Painting the Gentle Island are artistic expressions of the shifting realities of Island ecosystems under threat. First featured in a creative showcase at Turning the Tide, an international conference held at UPEI last year which focused on island-specific effects of climate change, both are now available for the public to see at the Climate Change Centre in St. Peters.
Shifting Shores
Boswell created Shifting Shores, a 16-foot mural as an artist-in-residence.
“Engaging with an artist can influence how attendees perceive, understand, and construct their conference experience,” explains Julea. “I used art as a vehicle for engagement, to create art-as-documentation.”
Boswell’s creation process combined artistic expression with metaphor, reflection, poetry and participation. While she worked on the mural, conference participants (academics, researchers, policy makers) were invited to capture what resonated for them and pin these thoughts on a word-line while also listening to “Intertidal,” an ambient shore-themed soundscape composed for the project by Island musician Heather Taves. The mural was then animated with participants’ text and climate-themed poetry excerpts by artistic collaborators Laurie Brinkow and Leonard St-Aubin.
Painting the Gentle Island
In Professor William Montelpare’s exhibit Painting the Gentle Island, 17 images of impressionistic paintings paired with photos of PEI’s fields, flowers, woods, cliffs and dunes, embody both its beauty and fragility.
“My aim was to paint Island scenes resulting from severe weather events intensified by climate change, especially those that evoke an emotional response… to express the robustness and harmony of topography, ambiance of the season, and the influences of the Anthropocene on our small island. They might be natural landscapes that depict specific locations or iconic structures that are no longer present.”
The exhibit includes descriptions of the changes over time that were caused by climate change.
Visitors are invited to view the art when the Centre (5522 Route 2, St. Peters Bay) is open to the public on Fridays throughout the summer. Guided tours are offered every Friday morning from 10:30 am to 12 noon. The gallery and climate-resilient demonstration garden are open Friday afternoons from 12 noon to 3:30 pm.