ARTIST STATEMENT

Sherri Chaba - May, 2010

My art is organized around an overarching theme - the undervalued consequences of progress in the twenty-first century. My current work focuses on the impact of industry on the northern Alberta landscape but the works I develop, with the themes of reclamation, preservation, and the interconnectedness of the ecological community, relate to global concerns. At a local level, I have become disenchanted with the value placed on the economy relative to that afforded the environment, as evidenced through personal experience and research. As a result, my work explores the complex relationships our western culture has constructed relative to nature.

My current work began with a personal experience of breaches in environmental stewardship that occurred when a pipeline, used to transport bitumen from Fort McMurray, was installed on our family property. Through this experience, where both the landowner and the land were exploited, I personally came to understand what happens when our society favors industrial advancement over individual rights and stewardship of the environment. In response, I began using a methodical process whereby much of my work emerges from repetitive twisting, molding, and cutting of shapes. I construct forms through a diverse range of media and techniques that include the manipulation of wire line and forms, and selection and juxtaposition of an array of historical and natural items. The repetitive process, which yields larger than life size work, is time intensive but cathartic. This performative aspect of my sculptural and drawing/installation practice echoes my perseverance, albeit repeatedly futile, in striving for ethical relations relating to the land. I gravitate towards creating large works, in an attempt to rise above a small solitary defense and to offset the fragility of being - on both a human and non-human level drawing attention to the tenacity and strength of species determined to survive.

I use anthropocentric principles, a contentious term that assumes value is solely a human attribute. While I believe that every organism has the right to exist independent of the criteria being of value to humans, because our culture largely focuses on human values, a new framework for ecological consciousness must start with an understanding of the interconnectedness between humans and nature. Practices once viewed as progressive, can degenerate, through destructive consequences, when economic factors supporting the status quo are favored over emerging environmental concerns. While I believe that technological advances and the development of alternative forms of energy have the potential to alleviate the burden of resource dependency, social and political ideologies must change to support this development. Hence, I use anthropocentric principles to suggest the interconnectedness of the environment and the human body and subsequently allude to the demise of both. My work demonstrates an appreciation for nature and natural systems while questioning the future-- portending an environment that will no longer be habitable for humanity.

I continue to be intimately connected to the topography and histories of each place my work references. In my drawings, sculptures and installation spaces, I question the motives underlying our depletion of the biotic ecosystem and our relationship to the natural environment. My art practice and research explores the complexity and complicity of desires, and the futility experienced in espousing change when up against larger powers. My inquiry is driven by concern for the environment and by my belief that the artist can play a role in conceptualizing and building new frameworks for interaction with the land. I intend my works to be remedial - serving as a vehicle to inform ideologies and behaviors and to elicit new ways of imagining and experiencing the environment.