Artist Name: Rachel Verity Foster

Dates: April 25th - May 29th

Artist Statement:

Since moving to British Columbia six years ago, I have developed a passionate interest in the ecology of western Canadian wildlife and have been privileged to work in a variety of remote, sensitive landscapes. While working as a wildlife technician nest surveying, bird-banding, and wildlife monitoring, I use lumen and cyanotype printing methods (the exposure of an object on light-sensitive paper using sunlight) to capture the shapes and textures of the natural world. Leaves, blossoms, roots, and soil feature predominantly in my compositions, exploring themes of fragility and perseverance. Lumens and cyanotypes possess an attractive quality in that they can never be replicated, thus encapsulating the singularity of the natural aesthetic. John Berger once said, ‘What makes photography a strange invention is that its primary raw materials are light and time’. In this exhibition, light and time intersect to preserve fleeting moments from a mosaic of different landscapes, weaving mementos from mountain summits, glacial rivers, and burned forests into a tessellation of ecological thumbprints. Pieces are titled to reflect the observations made while capturing these intersections, merging a sense of place into relics of light and time.