“Into the Woods: Scorned as Timber, Red Cedar, Wood Interior (Emily Carr)”, 2023. by Karl Hipol
"Into the Woods: Scorned as Timber, Red Cedar, Wood Interior (Emily Carr)" is a large-scale mixed-media art installation that spans 4 feet wide and 8 feet tall. From a distance, the viewers are greeted with a towering and heavily textured hanging sculptural tapestry on an orange safety fence. The front piece reveals a pixelated image of Carr's painting printed on a vinyl banner, displaying a deforested landscape. A tunnel behind leads to another background mural of collaged paintings, contrasting the first piece with a lush, thriving, and flourishing forest. By pixelating, shredding, weaving, and reconstructing the landscape paintings by Carr, I aim to create a new terrain where viewers can make their own enriched journey of exploring a coastal rainforest. And also grow awareness of present environmental, social, and cultural awareness.
My multimedia art installation "Into the Woods: Scorned as Timber, Red Cedar, Wood Interior (Emily Carr)” is significantly influenced by and a throwback to Emily Carr's 'forest paintings.' As the title indicates, I curated and composed three paintings to create an innovative, immersive, tactile contemporary artwork. The three works relate to today's relevant environmental issue: old-growth logging and clear-cutting. This legal, environmental destruction Carr has witnessed is still present today and still impacts everyone on Earth. The case above is only a few of the problems that threaten the extinction of local flora and fauna, the continued conflict of territories of the Indigenous communities in BC and Canada, and significantly contribute to the worsening of global warming and climate change.
Acrylic and vinyl paint on canvas, inkjet print on vinyl, orange safety fence, zip ties, and wood.
Size: 96 (h) X 48 (l) X 24 (w) inches. Assemblage.
Year: 2023
Artist: Karl Hipol