Holly Schmidt: Vegetal Encounters - Fireweed Fields

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Holly Schmidt, "Fireweed Fields," 2021

Holly Schmidt: Vegetal Encounters Residency

Vegetal Encounters is Holly Schmidt’s three-year residency with the Outdoor Art Program at UBC. Through this residency, Schmidt has been creatively engaging with plant life as a significant source of life, connection and learning. The artist suggests that learning with plant life involves slowing down and using all of the senses to engage deeply and with respect. As part of her residency, she has been creating opportunities for students, staff and faculty on campus to attend to the plants around them. This engagement has resulted in a range of art projects in various mediums and of different durations.

A Conversation with Holly Schmidt and kQwa'st'not (Charlene George)

Thursday, May 5, 2022 at 1:30 pm

Join kQwa'st'not (Charlene George) - artist, cultural guide with Sierra Club BC - and Holly Schmidt - Outdoor Art artist-in-residence - in conversation about their work engaging with land, story and planting seeds of change. This informal discussion will take place outside the Belkin in Schmidt’s Fireweed Fields. The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited; to register, email us at belkin.rsvp@ubc.ca. This afternoon artist conversation follows Re-storying our Relations with the Natural World, a morning forest walk in Pacific Spirit Park led by kQwa’st’not. For details and to join the forest walk, visit UBC Sustainability Hub.

Associated Events

Film Series Selected by Holly Schmidt

Thursday, November 18 2021 at 7 pm

The Norm, #130-6138 Student Union Boulevard, UBC

In collaboration with the UBC Film Society, the Belkin presents a short program of films selected by Holly Schmidt that resonate with Vegetal Encounters, her slow residency in the gallery’s Outdoor Art Program. This free screening of Wild Relatives, Fordlandia and Indigenous Plant Diva will take place at The Norm in the Student Life Building. 

Fireweed Fields, Spring 2021

Fireweed Fields transforms a UBC lawn site into a fireweed meadow, encouraging increased biodiversity through gradual succession as a metaphor for the resurgence of life after a crisis. This installation acknowledges the global climate emergency: by tearing through the fabric of maintained lawns and colonial ideals, it plants the initial seeds for change and catalyzes dialogue, creative experimentation, and new biodiversity research and learning opportunities.

In observance of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Belkin and the University of British Columbia are closed on Thursday, September 30.