With Satellite Berlin – Art in collaboration presents Canadian Artist Patricia Coates during her 6 months residency in Berlin, granted by the CANADA COUNCIL for the ARTS and the Ontario Arts Council.
Her Alter-Ego Lucy Palustris ventured to Berlin via transatlantic migration. “Project Seed Vault” (random mutation) will explore transgenic, invasive and threatened species along with a whole bunch of flora and fauna specimens and 'madlab' paraphernalia raising questions of the potential repercussions of tampering with biological evolution. Follow the developments of Patricia's work in Berlin here. With kind support of the Embassy of Canada Berlin
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Military macaw (Ara militaris). Current Conservation status: Vulnerable; population decreasing.11/20/2018 "As we should all be aware, for the first time in history, humans are now poised to destroy the prospects for decent existence for much of life. " Noam Chomsky. Field Study: Fusing past crisis with current ones at sites of trauma in Berlin. Collecting Horse-Chestnuts (Aesculus hippocastanum); Current Conservation status: Near Threatened. At the Berlin Wall. At the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin.
A Military macaw's head torn from a mounted specimen during the allied air raids on Berlin. Almost all mounted macaws of the museum were lost when the building was hit by a grenade in World War II. Today, the Brazilian Cerrado Savannah, a rich habitat for macaw species is being destroyed for soybean (sojabohnen) crops used mainly for meat production (pig feed). Germany is one of Brazil's top importers of soybean. Stasi Prison: Fecundity and death, care and violence are set against each other to create a psychic tension within Lucy Palustris, the artist’s alter-ego. The work probes issues of the Anthropocene while creeping into the physiological landscape of the persona. Lucy, a solitary woman, manifests a conflicted relationship with the living world. Is she an agency of care, a de-stabilizing force, or a menacing presence? Filming: Stasi Prison with Isabelle Duchêne, © Isabelle Duchêne
In Berlin, Lucy explores the beauty and brutality of a degraded landscape while contemplating our transient existence within it. A call for restitution plays out like a Sisyphean gesture. Fecundity and death, care and violence are set against each other to create a psychic tension. Remnants of the wall set the scene probing issues of the Anthropocene while creeping into the physiological landscape of Lucy - a solitary woman who manifests a conflicted relationship with the living world. Is she an agency of care, or a menacing presence? A tragic-comedic tone permeates her actions and costume. Her work seems tenacious yet quixotic. Is Lucy (or is of art itself) a futile intervention or a necessary resistance? Perhaps there are bits of Lucy in all of us -- in our complicity and in our resilience. Gathering nettles (Urtica dioica) |
Decommissioned animal stable. Two hours west of Berlin. Photo © Nora Novak A clownish and rather slatternly scarecrow. Rural Germany. Photo © Nora Novak |
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