Artist Talk by Alana Bartol

Alana Bartol (she/they) comes from a long line of water witches. Their site-responsive artworks use ritual, divination, dreaming, humour, participatory, and sensory experiences to engage audiences in understanding across places, species, and bodies. Critically examining the impacts of extractive industries such as coal and oil, Alana’s collaborative and individual works explore our relationships with the Earth, its elements, and what are colonially known as natural resources while reflecting on their culture’s complicity in extraction.

Long-listed for Canada’s Sobey Art Award in 2019 and 2021, Alana’s interdisciplinary practice spans drawing, experimental video, performance, sculpture, socially engaged art, public art, installation, and curatorial work, presented in exhibitions and festivals across Canada and internationally. Of Scottish, German, English, Irish, and Danish ancestry, Alana is a white settler currently based in Mohkínstsis (Calgary, Alberta, Canada) on Treaty 7 territory, where they are an Assistant Professor at Alberta University of the Arts.

This talk is free and open to the public, all are welcome. If you have accommodation needs, please contact dmg.utsc@utoronto.ca.

U of T Scarborough students attending for course credit should register here. 

This talk is part of the Visiting Artist Lecture Series, co-presented by the Doris McCarthy Gallery & Studio Art program, Department of Arts, Culture & Media, University of Toronto Scarborough. This semester's series addresses the urgency of the climate crisis and the effect of human actions on the environment, inviting artists to talk about the ways in which their practice engages with the topic of climate justice, and the unlikely collaborators needed in order to shift our mindsets, practices, and conversations about how we live our lives.

This program takes place in Rm AA304, Arts & Administration Building, U of T Scarborough. This is a seated event. The classroom is wheelchair accessible.