Forest Series
The Forest Series (Spires and Cariboos) are mixed media works, combining photography of the coniferous forests of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, with silkscreen printing and hand painting. These pieces capture the pristine beauty of the white, snow-covered mountains and the majestic natural lines of the alpine landscape.
The Forest Series is pared down and minimalistic whilst still preserving the unique capacity of the natural world to capture an emotion or moment and evoke the sublime.
The muted tones of the stark environment create a sense of melancholy, presenting the viewer with an image of a bleak future in which our forests have been devastated by climate change. The Rocky Mountain environment is at significant risk from fire and avalanches, as well as logging, mining, oil and gas development and other man-made causes of habitat loss and forest degradation. This work is a powerful reminder that we are not only jeopardising a beautiful ecosystem that has existed for millennia, but also one of our most powerful and essential tools in mitigating the disastrous effects of climate change.
As-sin-wati, meaning ‘a rocky mass’, comes from the Native American (Algonquin/Cree) name for the Rocky Mountains. The forest is not only the home of indigenous communities, but also a space for traditional culture intimately connected with the environment and an identity intertwined with nature. Traditionally, people have lived in harmony with the world around them, using ancestral knowledge to protect plants and animals as the caretakers of forests. Indigenous people contribute the least to carbon emissions globally, yet their dependence upon nature means that these communities are often the first to face the direct consequences of climate change.
However, this image is not without hope. In fact, this artwork depicts the landscape after a naturally occurring fire, which recycles nutrients into the soil and releases seeds for new plant growth, a process critical to forest health and the natural cycles of decomposition and renewal. The Forest Series references the history of Romantic landscape paintings, emphasising the importance of a return to nature. These pieces explore the duality of the idyllic beauty of the natural world and the uncontrollable cataclysmic power of the climate. Caspar David Friedrich claimed that “The artist should not only paint what he sees before him, but also what he sees in himself,” Spires and Cariboos create a space for reflection and introspection.
These works are part of artist Nicola Green’s ongoing exploration of climate change. As co-founder of Sophia Point Rainforest Research Centre, Green has championed the preservation and exploration of the Guyana Shield, the largest remaining pristine rainforest on earth. Green has begun exploring new and innovative ways of artistically rendering the flora and fauna found on the site. As a Principal Artist of the upcoming project ‘The World Reimagined’, Green will create a large-scale public artwork, a sculpture that explores the shared history of the transatlantic slave trade, and interrogates its ongoing legacy through the intersection of racial and climate justice.
These artworks are hand painted with shards of diamond dust, and slivers of glass bringing the magic and light of the forest and mountains to life!
