Landscapes (2008)

Three screen video projection

Born from an invitation to respond to the holdings of the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Landscapes draws on the gallery’s large collection of engravings by the British artist J.M.W Turner to comment on how colonial settlers sought to map the geography of their localities onto Indigenous territories. Turner’s prints bear names like Warkworth, Whitby, Scarborough and Humber River, all of which have Ontario analogues. And his rendering of English towns and pastoral landscapes might almost be blueprints for remaking the land through urbanization, agriculture and gardening. Indeed, Turner was painting at the height of this transformation in Upper Canada.

The installation consists of “temporal collages,” to quote catalogue essayist Monika Kin Gagnon, that take as their starting point three Turner watercolours: Warkworth Castle, Northumberland—Thunderstorms Approaching at Sunset (1799), Arundel Castle, on the River Arun (1824) and Scarborough (1824). I chose Warkworth and Scarborough because of their Ontario namesakes. Arundel was selected because of the uncanny resemblance between Turner’s view and the city of Hamilton, Ontario, as seen from the Mountain.

Playing with the idea of original and copy, each of the tree projections blends the image of a watercolour, the black and white engraving published from it, and original video footage gathered around Warkworth, Scarborough and Hamilton, Ontario. In Landscapes, Turner’s English settings morph through video compositing into their Ontario analogues and back again.For instance, Warkworth Castle transforms into Warkworth Institution, Canada’s largest prison, while Northumberland County’s Crowe River mutates into the River Coquet. The sign for Alderville First Nation, home to the Mississauga Anishinabeg of the Ojibway Nation, signals an Indigenous relationship to the land that has endured and resisted colonialism.

Camera: Richard Fung

Compositing/editing: Dennis Day

Sound Design: Philip Strong

McMaster Museum of Art, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts

Catalogue: Richard Fung: Landscapes, foreword by Carol Podedworny, “The Enchantment of Richard Fung’s Unsettling Landscapes (after JWM Turner)” by Monika Kin Gagnon. Hamilton: McMaster Museum of Art, 2008.

Distributor: www.vtape.org

Three screen video projection

Born from an invitation to respond to the holdings of the McMaster Museum of Art in Hamilton, Ontario, Landscapes draws on the gallery’s large collection of engravings by the British artist J.M.W Turner to comment on how colonial settlers sought to map the geography of their localities onto Indigenous territories. Turner’s prints bear names like Warkworth, Whitby, Scarborough and Humber River, all of which have Ontario analogues. And his rendering of English towns and pastoral landscapes might almost be blueprints for remaking the land through urbanization, agriculture and gardening. Indeed, Turner was painting at the height of this transformation in Upper Canada.

The installation consists of “temporal collages,” to quote catalogue essayist Monika Kin Gagnon, that take as their starting point three Turner watercolours: Warkworth Castle, Northumberland—Thunderstorms Approaching at Sunset (1799), Arundel Castle, on the River Arun (1824) and Scarborough (1824). I chose Warkworth and Scarborough because of their Ontario namesakes. Arundel was selected because of the uncanny resemblance between Turner’s view and the city of Hamilton, Ontario, as seen from the Mountain.

Playing with the idea of original and copy, each of the tree projections blends the image of a watercolour, the black and white engraving published from it, and original video footage gathered around Warkworth, Scarborough and Hamilton, Ontario. In Landscapes, Turner’s English settings morph through video compositing into their Ontario analogues and back again.For instance, Warkworth Castle transforms into Warkworth Institution, Canada’s largest prison, while Northumberland County’s Crowe River mutates into the River Coquet. The sign for Alderville First Nation, home to the Mississauga Anishinabeg of the Ojibway Nation, signals an Indigenous relationship to the land that has endured and resisted colonialism.

Camera: Richard Fung

Compositing/editing: Dennis Day

Sound Design: Philip Strong

McMaster Museum of Art, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts

Catalogue: Richard Fung: Landscapes, foreword by Carol Podedworny, “The Enchantment of Richard Fung’s Unsettling Landscapes (after JWM Turner)” by Monika Kin Gagnon. Hamilton: McMaster Museum of Art, 2008.

Distributor: www.vtape.org