By Caitlyn Gerrish – Arts & Culture Editor

Last Thursday, Foreman Art Gallery hosted a reception launching their first exhibition of the year: As Geocreatures. The collection features the work of seven artists with a mixture of art forms and mediums ranging from videography, sound and light installations to sculpture. The exhibit challenges visitors to reflect on the ways evolution has impacted the planet specifically through the lens of geology. 

As the exhibition’s curator Sylvie Parent explained, As Geocreatures is interested in the relationship between living things and the mineral world. “They encourage us to adopt a geological perspective and to consider the impact of living things on Earth.” The title of the exhibition was inspired by philosopher Jane Bennett, who views humans as “geo-creatures”, as we are composed of the same chemical elements as the earth. “From our remote mineral origins to the remnants of our civilizations that are destined to end up encased in rock, we are geology.” 

Each artist’s installations provide insights into these connections between geology and the living world. Illustrator and filmmaker Boris Labbé uses 3D models and satellite imaging to envision what the formation of a mountain range would look like. Cécile Beau, a visual artist currently located in Paris, presents an installation which demonstrates the real-time alteration of stones when continuously exposed to various liquids through the use of a drip irrigation system. Inspired by scientific research, sculptor Patrick Coutu uses imprints of rock walls from across Quebec to capture the “mineral history” of a site. Interdisciplinary artist François Quévillon uses videography to depict “a botanical and mineral encounter”, featuring a boulder and intertwined tree roots. Ontario artist Stefan Herda uses chemical manipulations to create artificial crystals which are held within plant-based supports like driftwood. Artist and lecturer Jen Southern’s animated video tells the narrative of a mound of seeded clay and the way it interacts with its environment on a loop. Finally, interdisciplinary designer and sound artist Yesenia Thibault-Picazo explores the phenomenon of metal assimilation through living organisms using videography and specimens. 

“The mineral world takes us back to our distant origins and will also witness our demise, through fossils and the remains of our civilizations in a future that will be drawn, in part, by us.” As Parent says, As Geocreatures materializes the multifaceted relationships between geology and the living world. The exhibit is open until March 23.