Drawings + Digital Animations

Susan Turcot

Susan Turcot lives and works in London and travels frequently between Quebec and Europe. Her drawings give form to ongoing research projects, as a type of reportage on nature and culture divides and its various forms of representation driven into increasingly abstract forms. The exploitation of natural resources alters the environment in myriad ways, many having a negative and often irreversible impact. Turcot follows organized human activities that continue to reshape the surface of the planet.

The Canadian public has only recently been exposed to the consequences of extreme deforestation on people, animals and climate change. In Quebec, thanks to Richard Desjardins' film L'Erreur boreale (1999), an emergency button has been pressed to inform the public, making companies more protective of information while continuing to increase productivity.

Turcot has developed new work around this environmental crisis. Her contribution takes the form of seven large drawings and an animation. Both forms investigate the systematic and rapid depletion of the highly fragile ecosystem that is Canada's boreal forest north of Quebec City. She visited and documented a vast deforestation zone in northern Quebec during the summer of 2004.

While in residence at the ACAD Turcot produced a print edition (with the kind assistance of Ken Webb in the Print Media Department) and gave a public lecture at the College.

Curated by Wayne Baerwaldt.