Peter von Tiesenhausen
PETER VON TIESENHAUSEN is a prime example of what people mean when they speak of an artist as “unique.” His belief in the land, in the people of the land, in the conservation and sanctity of the land is powerfully present in every creation, which he has crafted. Working with a huge diversity of media (sculpture, painting, video, community engagement activities), always in thoroughly original ways, he has become a seminal thinker and teacher in the practice of non-traditional art, both within and far beyond Canada. Many of his works are site-specific installations, which celebrate and simultaneously protect the spaces they inhabit: his entire farm in northern Alberta, where a large number of his works have been created and installed, has been acknowledged as a work of art and an inviolable cultural property.
Video courtesy Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Awards.