"Debris/Détritus" by Karen Hibbard and "Perennial" by Jennifer Rae Forsyth

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"Canada Post; Grey"

Jennifer Rae Forsyth, "Canada Post; Grey," Medium: Oil and Mixed Media.

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"Debris/Détritus"

Karen Hibbard, "Debris/Détritus," Watercolour.

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ARNICA presents an exhibition of new works by Karen Hibbard and Jennifer Rae Forsyth.

January 8th - February 23rd, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, January 11th 6:00-9:00pm

Nature fights back in Karen Hibbard’s narrative, Debris/Détritus, which realizes an ‘out of control’ consumerism, despite the ‘green’ campaign’s noble efforts to curtail pollution through recycling. Fashioning protective gear out of the debris, animals return the ubiquitous plastic bags and bottles to us. Hibbard’s work is a cautionary tale that puts the blame where it squarely belongs, reminding us that we are affecting the environments of others as well as our own because of an addiction to ‘lifestyle’. Debris/Détritus is a media installation that includes an animation projected onto a ”screen” made from woven plastic bags. The video animation invites criticism over the discrepancies between the shiny new product and the dirty trash it becomes. The projection screen for the piece is constructed from the very debris that the piece is critiquing.

Perennials, especially small flowering plants, grow and bloom over the spring and summer and then die back every autumn and winter, only to return in the spring from their roots. Graffiti, and other forms of intervention in the urban landscape return in a similar fashion. Building on the roots of prior markings these traces are reborn and develop into new images and objects but carry the mark of their history. Through the series Perennial, Jennifer Rae Forsyth explores roadside memorials, graffiti, advertisement, litter, damage and decay. Her paintings explore the margin between the intentional and unintentional in the urban landscape, their growth and their relationship to memory and experience.