Mia + Eric — In a Strange Place

From the ancient Black Forest in Germany to Canada's magnificent Boreal forest, woodlands have inspired humans for many millennia. But beyond their artistic allure, forests play a critical role in sustaining life and supporting diverse ecosystems and wildlife.

As deforestation and climate change accelerate, artists such as the Calgary-based duo Mia Rushton and Eric Moschopedis are finding evocative ways to illuminate what’s at stake and rekindle humanity’s connection to forests. 

Their work, In a Strange Place, is a nine-channel video installation that combines handcrafted paper masks, performance, sound and digital artistry to reflect on biodiversity and interspecies relationships.

In 2020, Mia + Eric launched a multi-year, multi-country project spanning England, Germany, and Norway, collaborating with environmental activists, conservationists, and land keepers. 

This new iteration, still entitled In a Strange Place, is on view at Contemporary Calgary until Feb. 9. It brings the project closer to home with the inclusion of 30 caretakers from British Columbia and Alberta. This expanded version offers viewers a localized yet globally resonant perspective on forestry. (Another rendition of In a Strange Place is also on view at the Kelowna Art Gallery until March 23.

Upon entering the third-floor gallery, viewers are surrounded by a digital forest that is projected across three walls. Using multiple clips and shifting intervals, the videos capture 150 forestry stewards standing in their favourite spot performing slow-motion dances with their arms. Each performance is unique and embodies their personal interpretation or expression of the labour and love for the forest.

While each channel represents a unique story, woodland and rhythm, together they form a cohesive whole. This reinforced the idea that caring for forests is a shared, global responsibility. These simultaneous and shifting performances highlight the diversity of landscapes, which echo nature’s layered complexity and the intimate relationship between trees, people and the ecosystem.

On first glance, Mia + Eric’s installation is alluring — but it becomes more intriguing as the conceptual layers begin to slowly unfold. Through multiple metaphors, this quiet duo reveals an ambitious goal of inspiring viewers to reconsider their place among this majestic species.

The performers are mesmerizing, yet strangely abstracted by flat, colourful masks that obscure their faces. Made from cardboard, they are cartoonish in their depictions of imaginary woodland creatures. This adds an almost surreal or symbolic element to the artwork, blurring the line between humans and animals. These hybrid forms suggest a dissolution from human-centric perspectives, and playfully cajole us into reframing conservation as a sacred and multispecies responsibility.

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Mia + Eric, “In a Strange Place,” still, 2024 (photo courtesy of the artists)

This transformational shift of caretaking to sacred ritual is also reflected in the arm movements performed by each caretaker. These slow, choreographed movements exist more harmoniously with “tree time,” which reflects the slow gradual pace at which trees grow, communicate and adapt.

Most elegantly, we are reminded that trees are ancient beings with histories that stretch more than 300 million years. By slowing their actions and moving only their limbs, they become one with and mimic the trees. Through this clever choreography, the artists poignantly draw parallels between the caretakers’ intimate labour and living trees, where processes such as growth, nutrient sharing and resilience unfold quietly over decades. It also requires viewers to recalibrate their own pace to the enduring tempo of nature as they subconsciously tune into the vibration and wisdom of trees.

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Mia + Eric, “In a Strange Place,” still, 2024 (photo courtesy of the artists)

Mia + Eric’s collaboration with forest caretakers takes viewers on a deeply moving journey that embodies the rhythm of diverse woodlands. Mia + Eric are a neurodivergent, interdisciplinary artist team that bring a unique perspective through their research and community engagement work that focuses on biodiversity and interspecies relationships.

In A Strange Place offers viewers a rare opportunity to empathize with an ancient species that has inhabited the Earth for millions of years. This quietly provocative installation invites us to reimagine our role in the sacred dance between humans and nature. ■

Mia + Eric, In a Strange Place, is on view at Contemporary Calgary until Feb. 9

Another rendition of Mia + Eric, In a Strange Place, is on view at Kelowna Art Gallery until March 23

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