"Disrupting Wild Echoes" Exhibit (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada)

 

"Disrupting Wild Echoes" Exhibit

The "Disrupting Wild Echoes" by Sarah Ronald Exhibit, opened last March 17, 2022 at the Beaty Biodiversity Museum and curated by Yukiko Stranger-Galey (with Chris Stinson as Scientific Curator),  was initially inspired by the artist’s real and unintentional encounters with coyotes, bears and raccoons in her own backyard and, later, by thoughts about the animal’s experiences before, during and after their encounters with her. 

Check out "Beaty Biodiversity Museum"

Landspeaker (X) - 2021, soft pastel and colored pencil on drafting film

Ronald, a Canadian BFA graduate of Okanagan University College now living in Port Coquitlam, explores themes of wildlife conservation through her hand-drawn animations of wildlife.  Her diverse upbringing in the rural Okanagan shaped her future as a multi-disciplinary nature artist and aspiring creative writer.  To present wildlife and climate concerns beyond the traditional art spaces, she sees installation art and projected animation becoming a significant aspect of her practice.

 

Landspeaker (XII) - 2021, soft pastel
and colored pencil on drafting film

The exhibit, designed by Derek Tan and Evan Craig (with Lesha Koop as fabricator), runs until September 25, 2022.  At the exhibit, we explored the artist's beautiful drawings inspired by the visual language of nighttime captures by trail cameras, whose use becomes an extension of her hand-drawn visualizations.

 

Intuitors - 2021, soft pastel and
colored pencil on drafting film

It offered us an opportunity to relearn and rejoin the natural world, in an ecologically beneficial and holistic way, to consider and connect more wholly with the experience of wild animals.  Using art, Sarah made us explore what it could feel like for an animal to encounter humans in the backyards that we share.

 

Landspeaker (XI) - 2021, soft pastel
and colored pencil on drafting film

Naturally developed into chapters with titles such as “Territory (I), (II), (III)” and so on, the nighttime portraits of animals (which Ronald calls “landspeakers”) captured in the wild include an intrigued, innocently goofy and surprised raccoon, a wolf sniffing the ground and an unsuspecting fox (with fear in his eyes) carrying off a recent kill.

 

Phantom Neighbour - 2021, soft pastel
and colored pencil on drafting film

They are blurred forms with implied movements, unnatural lighting, heightened contrast, muffled darkness and seemingly foreign landscapes.  These emotionally charged depictions mirror human experiences like fear and curiosity, making us relate to these four-legged creatures much more.

Arching Portal - 2021, soft pastel and
colored pencil on drafting film

“Disrupting Wild Echoes” Exhibit: Beaty Biodiversity Museum,  2212 Main Mall, Point Grey, University of British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Vancouver, British Columbia.  Tel: 604-827-4955. Fax: 604-822-0686.  Open Tuesdays to Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM.  Admission: C$14 (regular), C$30-45 (Family)  and free (students, staff and faculty).  E-mail: info@beatymuseum.ubc.ca.  Website: www.beatymuseum.ubc.ca.   Coordinates: 49.2636°N 123.2514°W. 

How to Get There: Take the 99-B Bus going straight to the University of British Columbia.  The museum is a 10-min. walk from there.