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<\/a>Photo:\u00a0 Mauricio Contreras-Paredes<\/p>\nSpectral Landscapes includes an array of printed, etched, and painted works which line the walls of the more western of MOCCA\u2019s exhibition spaces. The age-old quest for becoming lost in a wilderness is set at play here, with each of the three artists offering engaging depictions of our more (or less) uninhabited environments. Idealized interpretations of landscape involve oppositions; we find the real, the sublime, the rugged, the fragile, the whimsical, and the surreal. Realism is interrupted by the ambiguous and the fantastical, lending a quality of sheer uncanny.<\/p>\n
Doig\u2019s works, colour etchings on hahnem\u00fchle paper, come from his series, 100 Years Ago. The etchings are scenes of familiarity which reference past experiences and popularized culture. In these etchings Doig offers an acute awareness of the way that light affects perceptions and gives visual shape to objects. Almost impressionistic, this intentional focus on light is reminiscent of old photographs and renders the images as something from a memory. Echoes of \u201cdo you know this place,\u201d linger as visitors point out details, responding to personal familiarity with the visual cues, and the similarities in experiences that we have all shared in our pasts.<\/p>\n From a distance one would not guess that Gardner\u2019s scenes of inhabiting the wild are created with watercolour paint rather than digital photography. Gardner\u2019s depictions are especially significant to anyone who has spent time (childhood or otherwise) in the rugged hinterland of Canada’s backyard. Reminding one of days spent camping, skiing, or exploring, these paintings are similar to Doig\u2019s and seem akin to personal memory. The elusive quality offered by the brushstroke, rather than digital clarity, emphasizes the fleeting nature by which remembered images are tinged. Gardner’s personal history is a shared one. Juxtaposing human object with nature\u2019s starkness, Gardner poignantly reminds that \u201cleaving it all behind\u201d can have a double entendre (do we leave the city, or leave bits of it behind in the wilderness).<\/p>\n Johnson\u2019s works in the series Arctic Wonderland date from 2009, when she sailed on a Norwegian schooner to Svalbard as a participant in the Arctic Circle program. Inspired by the sublimity of her surroundings, she captured these scenes, as well as her peers and their ship, in stark reality. Acknowledging the Arctic as a clear measure of the planet\u2019s precarious health, Johnson manipulated her documentary-style photographs. Imposing post-production techniques such as etching and painting with photo-spotting inks, these works attest to an endless query of the shared uses of the environment. Although the bond between nature and human is unbreakable, we must question the impact of human involvement within our \u201cpristine,\u201d \u201cuntouched\u201d and very fragile landscapes.<\/p>\n<\/a>Peter Doig, Big Sur, 2001. Print. NGC Collection, Ottawa. \u00a9 Peter Doig<\/p>\n<\/a>Tim Gardner, Untitled (Bryan with Hot Dog), 2008 Watercolour. NGC Collection, Ottawa. \u00a9 Tim Gardner<\/p>\n<\/a>Sarah Anne Johnson, Circling the Arctic, 2011. CMCP Collection, Ottawa. \u00a9 Sarah Anne Johnson<\/p>\n