IN HIS OWN WORDS...

My series, The Management, evokes the complexities of the Canadian governments’ control over natural phenomena as a means of maintaining the smooth functioning of our capitalistic society amidst the consequences of climate change.

I am interested in how cities such as Montreal adapted to Canada’s warmer climate (which resulted in less snow cover and more ice on roads) by increasing their use of salt to melt ice on roadways.

To illustrate the damage caused by these chemical salts, I have experimented with light-sensitive paper to create a series of darkroom prints. I soaked photosensitive paper into mixtures of brine and rust that I created using commercially available de-icing salts as well as oxidizing metals that came into repeated contact with the salts. Once soaked in broad daylight, the sheets were left to dry and were later developed as regular black and white or RA-4 colour prints. Close examination of the prints reveals the traces of sedimentation and corrosion that chemically altered the paper.

Without clear limits that define how humans can intervene with nature, the choices we make are blurry and it is unclear whether, for example, the environmental impact of de-icing salt counterweighs the resulting improvements to human safety. I want these works to embody the tension of the choice to benefit humans over maintaining natural ecosystems.