Crushed (2023-ongoing)

Everything I see reminds me of what we are destroying, and nearly every step I take implicates me in this destruction: every trip to the grocery store; every movie I stream; every glass of water I drink. Nothing I do is innocent, and the consequences are terrifying.  

This is the start of a paragraph that will circle the gallery walls in a single line during my upcoming Master’s of Fine Arts thesis exhibition, Crushed.* Crushed is a ceramics art show about climate change anxiety. The gallery floor will be covered with over 2,000 eggshell thin ceramic bowls made from clay I dig up in Regina. To read the text, you need to become a participant: will you step carefully between the bowls, perhaps tiptoeing or raising your pant cuffs? Or will you stomp ahead, satisfied by the sound of shattering ceramic beneath your feet? What will you leave behind for others?

Climate change is destroying the places I love, from the melting Rocky Mountain glaciers I hike to with my family, to the dried out wetlands where we used to bird watch. This affects me deeply, not only because it robs me of my enjoyment of these places, but also for the fear I have about the unprecedented planetary changes we are causing. Where are the birds who built their nests in these wetlands for generations? What will happen to our water supply when the South Saskatchewan River runs dry? What will the world be like when my son reaches my age? Questions like these are always on my mind.

My research aims to evoke such questions and feelings in others though ceramic art. My thesis exhibition, Crushed, uses the bowl, an common household object, to convey my climate anxiety and offer support to those who share it.

With a floor scattered with super fragile bowls and a text about my fears on the wall, Crushed creates an environment that will bring participants’ own climate fears to the surface, show them that such feelings are justified and shared, and offer them resources and support. At the end of the wall text will be information about a support group I founded and a discussion circle led by a psychologist that will take place in the gallery at the end of the show.

Climate anxiety is on the rise. This is not good. If anything hopeful is possible, we need people who care to demand action. Caring can be painful. I know. My Master’s of Fine Art thesis exhibition Crushed offers people a space of solace and support.

*Crushed will take place between August 20-27, 2024, at Fifth Parallel Gallery, University of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.