I spent one month at the Cobertizo residency in Jilotepec Mexico from November to December 2022, thanks to a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts.
Based on my discoveries during the residency, various imprint techniques came into play to create intermedia work. I created imprints from natural elements using etching, monoprint, and cyanotype, and I presented these in combination with photos and videos of my insect documentation using augmented reality.
Reflections on Absence — Reflexiones sobre la ausencia
Toned cyanotypes on washi paper, augmented reality photos.
In July 2022, migratory monarch butterflies entered the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species as Endangered, threatened by habitat destruction and climate change. The butterflies undertake a journey of 4,000 km every year from Canada and the northern United States to the mountains of Mexico and Michoacán states. The insects are faced with many obstacles along the way, such as herbicides and landscaping reducing access to crucial milkweed plants, vehicle collisions, storms and unusual weather along the way and at overwintering sites, as well as deforestation and mining impacting conservation in Mexico. During the residency in Jilotepec, I visited the overwintering site Mariposa Monarcha butterfly reserve in the nearby Michoacán mountains.
Ghostly impressions explore the species decline. These toned cyanotypes are paired with augmented reality photos that reveal hidden layers of insect presence and absence, inviting viewers to slow down and consider the fragility of more-than-human lives.
Spider Prophecies — La profecía de las arañas
Monoprints on washi paper. Valérie Chartrand.
“We are told: Toward the end of the world, Spider Woman will come back and she will weave her web across the landscape.” — Hopi elder, Thomas Banyacya
Across the landscape of the Cobertizo residency, I encountered Writing Spiders. The majority were garden spiders, also called writing spiders because they weave symbols through their webs. In the early mornings, their freshly woven webs would cover the fields of the property. This reminded me of a Hopi prophecy about the end of the world that tells us: “Toward the end of the world, Spider Woman will come back and she will weave her web across the landscape.” This evoked the insect apocalypse, reminding us to be kinder to the arthropods with whom we share space and to rethink our environmental interventions that heavily impact their lives.
A striking example of human disruption of insect life appeared in the nearby town of Jilotepec, where every tree trunk was painted white with calcium hydroxide (cal) to fend off insects. I discovered, when trying to paint the trunks of miniature trees I made from paper and copper, that cal becomes caustic when mixed with water and burns the skin. I combined the spider writings and the white trees together in monoprints as a reminder that, in this world out of balance, our grooming of the landscape has a direct impact on many fragile lives and contributes to the ongoing insect apocalypse.
Fallen Insect Memorial — Conmemoración de los insectos caídos
Photo etchings with found insect bodies, augmented reality photos.
During the period of the residency, I gathered found insects and memorialized them. These photo etchings use imprint-based techniques to evoke presence through absence, offering a quiet memorial for lives that often pass unnoticed. The augmented reality photos extend the experience, giving us pause and reflection around the fallen.
Dream Cyanotypes — Cianotipo de sueños
Cyanotypes on photo paper.
Ghostly images of my encounters during the residency, projected overnight by my bedside while I slept, onto photo paper I coated with cyanotype emulsion. The long exposures during the night translates the images into pastel apparitions, an oneiric archive of fieldwork and reflection.