The Subduction Experiment
We have often worked through ideas surrounding human presence in landscape. With this project, we would like to focus on geological elements and human interaction in imagined landscapes.
Subduction occurs when two tectonic plates collide at a convergent boundary and one plate is driven beneath the other, back into the Earth's interior. While the Earth’s tectonic plates are constantly on the move, we usually do not feel the slippage. There are no discerning movements to alert us to anything out of the ordinary while the geological world rearranges itself under our feet. We remain largely unaware of its movement, until a more radical shift occurs.
When we look around landscapes, we can sometimes see mostly uninterrupted spreads of coastlines. In other locations, what was spewed out from leaks in the Earth’s core, has been re-arranged, sometimes layers are re-folded. At other times the process has enveloped or revealed the prints of animals and plants long lost to the surfaces we now occupy. Sometimes we are treated to specific samples of minerals, the re-frozen, molten rock of volcanos, or surfaces adjusted through earthquake action. Overall, we can only imagine how to piece together what things looked like before any humans walked the Earth. In Subduction, we want to imagine time bridges connecting our moving world. These bridges will fuse local and global to reimagine new environments.
Approach: Recently, we had the opportunity to try out a 360 degree camera in southwestern U.S. desert landscapes. Since returning to New Brunswick, we have revisited Fundy coastlines that we have recorded in other projects, this time using the 360 degree camera. We plan to do more recording in New Brunswick locations during the next months. When we arrive in Fredericton, we will have most of our raw material ready to edit but will get out to record more of the Wolastoq River. During our Beaverbrook artist residency, we will also work through green screen editing experiments. To carry out these experiments, we will bring along a chroma green backdrop.
Biographie de l’artiste
Text/Image artists Valerie LeBlanc and Daniel H. Dugas have collaborated on media projects, performances and writing since 1990. They also continue to create individual projects and have presented widely. While their individual works vary according to social, economic and philosophical concerns, their collaborations often focus on ecological issues with consideration for the human condition. Co-written, their book Everglades (Prise de parole, 2018, Sudbury, ON) is based on their 2014 residency in the Everglades National Park. Also co-written, Videopoetry / Vidéopoésie (Small Walker Press, 2020, St. Catharines, ON) is based on their video work 1985 – 2018. Both LeBlanc and Dugas completed their MFAs at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Time Arts Program in 1993. The two work their projects between residencies at specific geographical locations and their Moncton, NB, Canada studio.
Heures d’ouverture du studio
Wednesday: 12 PM - 5 PM
Thursday: 1 PM - 7 PM
Friday: 12 PM - 5 PM
Saturday: 12 PM - 5 PM
Sunday: 12 PM - 5 PM
Le programme de résidence artistique bénéficie de l’appui de la Fondation Sheila Hugh Mackay.
