Project Description

Image: Speculative Futures, 2023. Recycled foam and objects, string, screen printing paint, Paverpol. 

Speculative Futures is a site-specific series of sculptures developed during the RECLAIM Public Art Residency in response to the history, present use, and possible futures of the land. Ku-sing-ay-las is the Songhees name for downtown Victoria, particularly the area between Wharf and Douglas. Meaning “place of strong fibre,” the name refers to the Pacific willow, whose inner bark was used to make fishing lines attached to stone net weights. The landscape has changed but continues to be a site of ingenuity, transformation, commerce, and trade.

The series explores how humans and the natural environment navigate tensions between toxicity and regeneration, attending to nature’s changing responses to human activity. Made from reclaimed materials, the sculptures speculate on future geological forms and propose new taxonomies of rock records emerging from the intermingling of plastic, construction waste, stone fragments, and organic remnants within the land.

Residency

Speculative Futures was developed during the RECLAIM Public Art Residency at Victoria Arts Council in August 2023, presented in partnership with STEPS Public Art and led by artist Germaine Koh. Participating artists were Alison Bigg, Laveen Gammie, Mike Glendale, David Martinello, and Carollyne Yardley.

The residency explored the reuse of art and construction materials for public spaces, with community partners SUPPLY Victoria Creative Reuse Centre and Jawl Properties, and additional support from the City of Victoria’s My Great Neighbourhood Grant.

Read the full residency programme and participant biographies.