Permafrost Tunnel, Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Yakutsk, Russia, 2019, editioned archival pigment print, 45” x 38”
Tara
Nicholson
Over the past decade, Nicholson has produced a large-scale body of landscape studies depicting escalating changes within the Anthropocene, primarily through the medium of photography.
Bridging the gap between disaster art and scientific study, Nicholson interprets impacted landscapes, movements of change and contemporary forms of land-based resistance, aligned together to provoke discussion and action surrounding climate change. Examining rewilding, resurrection biology and extinction studies, while witnessing connected waves of Indigenous and setter-allied actions, she is exploring the role of art within activism and how the interpretation of climate research can affect its outcome.
Nicholson documents climatology outposts in Canada, Greenland and Russia, while questioning collective ideals of the Arctic and working to demystify climate research. In 2021, she will be returning to Arctic Russia to photograph at the world’s largest rewilding site, Pleistocene Park, the Mammoth Institute and Melnikov Permafrost Institute to highlight projects at the edge of climate knowledge. Together, these places continue to spark sci-fi storylines while occupying a grey area between intervention and invention to illustrate intricate climate action landscapes amongst the bizarre and uncanny.
Exposed Permafrost, Duvannyi Yar, Sakha Republic, Russia, 2019, editioned archival pigment print, 36" x 36"
Exposed Permafrost, Duvannyi Yar, Sakha Republic, Russia, 2019, editioned archival pigment print, 36" x 36"
Water Samples, Dam Site, Northeast Science Station, 2019, Russia, editioned archival pigment print, 35" x 35"
Animal Bridge, Pleistocene Park, Sakha Republic, 2019, Russia, editioned archival pigment print, 31" x 31"
STOP TMX Protest Camp, Tree Tents, Burnaby, BC, 2020, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Kinder Morgan Protest Camp Base, Burnaby Mountain, 2018, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Kwekwecnewtxw, Coast Salish Watch House, Pipeline Route, Burnaby Mountain, 2018, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Education House, Camp Cloud, Pipeline Terminal Protest Camp, Burnaby Mountain, 2018, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Tiny House Warriors, TMX Protest Camp, Secwepemc Territory, Blue River, 2020, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Tiny House Warriors, TMX Protest Camp, Secwepemc Territory, Blue River, 2020, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Tiny House Warriors, TMX Protest Camp, Secwepemc Territory, Blue River, 2020, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Tiny House Warriors, TMX Protest Camp, Secwepemc Territory, Blue River, 2020, c-type print, 35" x 35"
Tara Nicholson has travelled throughout the Arctic to document climatology, exploring the often blurred edges between science fiction and science. Nicholson has exhibited internationally, most recently at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Modern Fuel Artist-run Centre and the Burnaby Art Gallery. She has attended residencies including the climate-centered, ‘Earthed’ at the Banff Centre for the Arts (2018), the Künstlerhaus Dortmund, Germany (2013) and the Empire of Dirt, BC (2021). Nicholson teaches at the University of Victoria and holds degrees from Ryerson University (BFA), University of British Columbia (Post Dip) and Concordia University (MFA). She has received ongoing funding from Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council to produce site-specific works examining links between activism and climatology. In 2020, she embarked on her PhD at UBC Okanagan to produce a body of exploratory landscape studies linking escalating changes within the Anthropocene.
Kootenay Gallery of Art
120 Heritage Way
Castlegar, BC V1N 4M5
kootenaygallery[dot]telus.net
250-365-3337
Oxygen Art Centre
#3-320 Vernon St. (alley entrance)
Nelson, B.C. V1L4E4
info[dot]oxygenartcentre.org
250-352-6322
We acknowledge with gratitude that our art spaces are located on the unceded traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx (Sinixt Arrow Lakes), Sylix (Okanagan Nation Alliance) and Ktunaxa (specifically Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples). We recognize the enduring presence of First Nations people on these lands and that they are home to Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.