Wally Dion

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Wally Dion, "Icosahedron," 2016

computer circuit boards, wire, enamel paint, 
83"x 90"

In the past, my studio practice has focused on discourses involving marginalized groups, specifically First Nations Peoples and what can be done to improve conditions.  The work has included a social consciousness, or sense of responsibility to the land and use of its resources.  From the large scale painted portraits depicting First Nations workers to the computer circuit board quilts and mosaics, my studio practice has largely remained within the 2D pictorial space of a painter. 

Instantly recognizable around the world, computer circuit boards are the hieroglyphics of our time.  People who use and depend upon their continued functioning know next to nothing about their inner language, or code.  For many people, computer circuitry is as enigmatic as the symbols carved into the side of a 3000 year old temple and yet we have enormous faith in their ability to furnish us with our lifestyles.  As precious as they are, circuit boards continue to find themselves discarded at an alarming rate.  Symbols of human ingenuity circuit boards also bear the dualistic role of being technological repositories for a culture that readily discards anything deemed obsolete.  Materials and chemicals, 100% human fabricated, are being concentrated into unsupervised waste zones.  As these technologies accumulate around the world they create landscapes with their own mythologies.  Under the colossal weight of civilization the waste is compressed forming toxic sedimentary beds complete with colorful bands of strata depicting humanities rapid ascension and collapse.  

When thinking about the land and our relationship with it I tend to focus on how much of our research looks backwards in time, digging and analyzing samples in the hope that we can gain understanding.  I am intrigued with scientific methods, drilling ice cores from Antarctica and testing their CO2 levels, or measuring the alternating sizes of tree rings.  Regarding this type of research I like to think about color coding these rings & layers for visual re-interpretation.