Tracy Peters: Subconscious Terrain

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Tracy Peters,, "Bog Breathers," 2020

Subconscious Terrain invites visitors into a metaphorical bog of moss images that situates them between a resting ground and a place of unrest. Immersive photo-based installations illuminate Sphagnum moss within physical and imaginative space, intersecting human and non-human ecosystems. This exhibition is a meditation on the life and death of Sphagnum habitats and their capacity for resuscitation and preservation. The delicate prints that inhabit the gallery embody the fragility of threatened bog environments, while attempting to elevate the vitality of peatlands as mitigators of global warming and climate change.

Artist statement:

In my interdisciplinary practice, I am drawn to threatened habitats that are in the midst of cataclysmic change. What deeply motivates me is resilient behaviour in ecosystems that enable their adaptation to human intervention. Often, I carry out my work and research in natural environments where unpredictable weather and ecological surprises challenge me to adapt my studio production to biological processes. 

In my recent work, I use photographic materials in collaboration with natural forces to collect impressions from the passage of time, light and weather in eroding landscapes. I wove giant photographs into an abandoned grain shed, and embedded light-sensitive paper in a stone beach as witness to the effects of climate on the ecosystem. These allow me to communicate with the environment in an attempt to understand its physical knowledge. Through these haptic interventions, I respond to the wind and water in ways that parallel those of my body, such as breathing, pulse and consciousness.

Subconscious Terrain is a new project that builds on my long-term study of architecture in threatened environments through the creation of multi-media installations about Sphagnum moss. This work investigates the bog as a metaphorical skin–how sphagnum moss functions as a protective blanket that envelops its habitat to protect and nurture it. 

My research incorporates themes such as restoration, preservation, fragility and survival–all characteristics of a bog. The installations investigate perspective, illusion, and depth to immerse the viewer in a bog so that they can look up to where the ground meets the sky. They are an attempt to raise consciousness of peatlands as a living solution to slow down the climate crisis.

Tracy Peters is a multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory. Her work examines the entanglements of human and non-human processes in response to eroding landscapes and environmental/climate crises. Peters has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council. She has attended residencies which include a partnership between Void Gallery and The Social Studios and Gallery in Derry, Northern Ireland; the ArtCenter/South Florida-MAWA artist exchange program in Miami, Florida; the Plug In ICA Summer Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm) in Mount Forest, Ontario; and The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada. Her work has exhibited across Canada, in Europe and Australia.