Plants of Grassy Mountain and Seeds for Grassy Mountain
Plants of Grassy Mountain, 2020. 38 drawings: heated milk on paper, 38 drawings: heated milk on paper and charcoal and milk on paper, 17.78 x 25.4 cm, original drawings, HD video, 47:34.
A witch works carefully in the dark, creating and revealing images of plants that have historically grown on or may still grow on Grassy Mountain, a strip-mined mountain and the site of the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. Initially invisible, the candle's heat or charcoal reveals each plant's image.
Seeds for Grassy Mountain, collaboration with Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed, 2020-ongoing, participatory artwork, 400+ seed packets, seed packet designs: Coal Plant, Canary Awaiting Resuscitation, and Crowsnest River Watershed
Seeds of Grassy Mountain is a companion piece to Plants of Grassy Mountain. Working with long-term collaborator, Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed, a botanist, herbalist, educator, artist, and co-owner of ALCLA Native Plants, we sourced and developed a series of native plant seed packets of plants that grow or have historically grown on Grassy Mountain. Participants and gallery visitors living in the Treaty 7 or Treaty 6 territories (areas where the plants are native) are invited to take a packet and plant the seeds as a way to connect with Grassy Mountain. In the exhibition, Processes of Remediation, the seed packets were displayed in a re-purposed core storage box obtained from the Greenhill Mine Complex. The box is labeled "GM" for Grassy Mountain. We also developed a series of in-person and online workshops sharing information about native plants, seed germination, and the importance of biodiversity. Seeds included: silky and silvery lupine, rocky mountain fescue, tufted hairgrass, fireweed, yarrow, paintbrush, fringed sage, prairie rose, and more.
