Make do with: Reflecting on Landscapes and Rural Spaces in Art

Abstract

This paper analyses and expands upon the thesis exhibition, Make do with. This body of work used painting to examine relationships with rural landscapes and memory. It asks how the complexity of these landscape relationships—with their layers of personal emotion, memory, and associations—can be conveyed in art. As well, it explores how conveying these ideas can give viewers room to consider their own relationship with these types of landscapes. This paper also considers the nature of landscape as a construction of culture values and memories, rather than outside of human influence. In exploring these questions, this document examines contemporary landscape work in Canada and Alberta, as well as how it interacts with historical context to create work that offers a critical analysis of how culture and personal experience interact with ideas of landscape, within a settler context. The following chapters look to contemporary art practices (which deal with the land and memories of landscape outside of Canada) and how these dynamic methods of working influence the methods and materials employed in this thesis work to examine the interlacing of memory and place with greater scope. Finally, it looks more closely at the mediums and techniques of display, which the title exhibition suggests, to encourage viewers to interact with their own perception of landscape and rural spaces. The art in this body of work looks to create a distinct moment of consideration for how one constructs landscapes in art, as well as in memories and connections to people and places. The significance in this body of work lies in giving a sustained moment of contemplation to the importance which our own experiences, emotions, and memories have in shaping the landscapes around us.