Leila Armstrong: Burrows & Bungalows

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Leila Armstrong, "Burrows & Bungalows," 2022

collage

Leila Armstrong: Burrows & Bungalows

Artist’s Statement:

There is a disconnect between people’s everyday lived experience and their conception of nature as something external and removed. This leads to a concern that we will have no inclination for protecting the biodiversity with which we engage every day. Given that 81% of Canadians reside in urban centres (Statistics Canada), it is important to understand how city dwellers define and interact with urban wildlife and wilderness. Through an investigation into the urban ecology of Lethbridge, my aim is to challenge people to rethink their conceptions of nature as detached from our daily lives. One of the intended outcomes of my research is to increase awareness of, and the need for, engagement with urban ecologies as spaces in which humans and other species must live and thrive together. (The collages in this exhibition were done during a residency at the Gushul Studio in the Crowsnest Pass in 2021.

Bio:

Leila Armstrong is a Lethbridge-based artist currently doing a PhD in Evolution & Behaviour at the University of Lethbridge. Leila has a BA in Fine and Performing Arts from SFU and a MA in Media Studies from Concordia University in Montréal. She loves visiting natural history museums and enjoying their early to mid-20th century dioramas. Her interests also include watching pre-digital animation and reading suspense and horror stories — the more chilling, the better.

The artist wishes to thank: Josephine Mills, The Barrett-Henzi Lab, Valerie Armstrong, Ben Khorshidnam (Art of Taxidermy), Angela Luck, James McDowell, Ernest Geisler, The Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Gushul Studio (University of Lethbridge)