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<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nInstallation view of Travis Shilling, Tyrannosaurus Clan,<\/em> at Ingram Gallery. Photo: Olivia Musselwhite<\/p>\n\n\n\n The title of Travis Shilling\u2019s show at Ingram Gallery, Tyrannosaurus Clan<\/em> is the merging of two terms. According to Tarah Aylward, pipelines are meant to transport petroleum which has been termed humorously as \u2018Dino-Juice\u2019. It is the term \u2018Dino-Juice\u2019 that resulted in Shilling\u2019s choosing of the widely known \u2018Tyrannosaurus\u2019 species in the exhibition title. \u2018Clans\u2019 are the traditional method of distinguishing the family relationships of people. In this joining of terms, the title suggests that the people of the modern world have become a new clan that relies on natural gas and pipelines to transport it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Travis Shilling\u2019s oil paintings now suggest the charged\npolitical climate around the development of pipelines in Canada, that political\nmessage was not on the artist\u2019s agenda when he painted them. They were meant\nsolely to replicate the visual state of the landscape. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Excavators #1<\/em>, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of Ingram Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shilling merges two styles of painting on the same canvas. In The Excavator #2 <\/em>(2019), the artist depicts sweeping landscapes that are rendered with realism and adds the spirit. In this dark, barren and muddy scene with only the remains of tree stumps, a mammal spirit climbs a mound of earth in the distance, as if it is coming from inside the land, with its claws and jaw clenching the soil. The spirit looks upon the humans, who are unaware of its presence, with a wide eye. Like all the others in Travis Shilling\u2019s pieces, is pictured in animal form and is much larger than the humans and their machinery. It is presented as a layered composition with depictions of other creatures and scenery within their figures. The spirits are brightly painted, semi-abstract, and seemingly part of the landscape as much as otherworldly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Excavator #2<\/em>, 2019, oil on canvas, 36 x 36 in. Courtesy of Ingram Gallery The Village <\/em>(2019) portrays another spirit that is coming\nfrom the horizon and over the land. Its path angles toward the front of the\npipeline, seemingly intersecting with it. In the spirit\u2019s belly, there is a\ngreen landscape under a full moon, embodying what has been lost in the land due\nto human construction. Heavy machinery sits atop the mud in order to dig\ntrenches where colossal pipes are to be lowered into the ground. The workers\nare minuscule compared to the machinery that engulfs them. They go about their\nduties without sensing the spirit or giving any thought to the destruction of\nnature and what it might mean in their future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The Village<\/em>, 2019, oil on canvas, 48 x 60 in. Courtesy of Ingram Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n Shilling\u2019s works are filled with subtle and impactful\ndetails. Totem <\/em>(2019) shows us the land decimated by\npipeline construction. A bird-like spirit tenderly wraps its neck around a lone\nTotem pole, caressing it in an attempt to save it from being cut down. Again,\nthere is no connection between the humans with the chainsaws and the spirit.\nIts effort to save the Totem is futile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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