Walking with the Trees That We Planted Together

Unlike the art historical version of the sublime with roaring waterfalls and dramatic vistas, Linda Duvall focuses on a barren sandy and windy section of the Canadian prairie. As she wanders this land, she reveals echoes of her complex and sometimes painful relationship with this place. Her videos are absent of narrative, but within the slowness of the unfolding performative gestures, one gets hints of the intensity of her complicated history with this place.

The video is absent of narrative, but within the slowness of the unfolding performative gestures, one gets hints of the intensity of her complex and sometimes painful relationship with this place. Laying in the snow, stroking the sage or walking into a caragana bush, she  responds through sensation rather than rational thought, allowing states of anxiety and vulnerability to seep to the surface. For example, in one action, Duvall pushes familiar rainbow colored birthday candles into a crusty snow surface and then struggles to light them in the cold. Most of the candles eventually begin to burn, flickering wildly in the wind, while one wonders when each will be snuffed out by natural or other forces.

Format: High Definition Video

Length: 12 minutes 35 seconds

Audio performed by Lia Pas and edited by Linda Duvall

This work was presented as part of the exhibition Alternative Maternals

Presented at:
London South Bank University, Borough Road, London SE1 OAA 2105

and at:
Linder Art Space, Berlin, Germany 2014

Alternative Maternals is a community of artists coming together to challenge the perception and dismissal of the mother as a valid anchor for artistic expression. Through a variety of media—from performance and film to installation and object-based work—this exhibition invites thought about becoming, being and having a mother, in all its complexity. The maternal body, dialogue, work, love, and loss enmesh in the work of these five artists to reveal what we have taken for granted for too long.

Artists: Deborah Dudley, Linda Duvall, Jeca Rodríguez-Colón, Miriam Schaer and Valerie Walkerdine

Curator
Laura González (Spain/UK) is an artist and writer. When she is not following the footsteps of Freud, Lacan and Marx with her camera, she teaches postgraduate students. Her current project explores knowledge and the body of the hysteric through film, dance, photography and text. She is the co-editor of a book entitled Madness, Women and the Power of Art (InterDisciplinary Press, Oxford, 2013) to which she contributed a work in collaboration with Eleanor Bowen. www.lauragonzalez.co.uk

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