REBECCA ANWEILER

I Wish You Were Here

David Kaye Gallery February 2 - 22, 2012

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Seeing Paradise and Nothing Else

verb gallery, Kingston, Ontario

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I’ve started painting landscapes; picture-perfect landscapes, iconic images of Canada from coffee table books and postcards. They disclose nothing of the true shape and condition of our country and the people living in it. There are no dams, no oil sands, no images of poverty, no clear-cuts, no forest fires, no landfills, no droughts, no skyline of exhaust fumes, no extinctions, no mining, no oil spills, no human rights abuses, no pilfering of land, no nuclear plants, no imposed economic dependency and colonization, no damaging agricultural practices, no economic crises, no nuclear stockpiles, no wars; just pretty pictures of places to visit across our lovely country; if we could afford the gas and its nasty footprint.

With a nod to the Group of Seven, this work is about seeing paradise and nothing else. Maybe it’s just a longing for denial, or to take a break from being critical. Look how beautiful it is, or was, at least 40 or more years ago. Unfortunately nature already was an endangered species confined to museums, parks and shrinking ‘wilderness areas’ at that time. There aren’t too many people talking about what’s happening to our world. I can’t stop thinking about it myself.

I wish you were here.