Slide 1

Larch, Spruce, Fir, Birch, Hand, Blast Hole Pond Road, Newfoundland 2007-2026

Marlene Creates

Canadian environmental artist Marlene Creates extends her ongoing photographic investigations of the six-acre patch of old-growth boreal forest in Portugal Cove on the island of Newfoundland / Ktaqmkuk, the unceded territory of the Indigenous Mi’kmaq and Beothuk. The book brings together the complete set of 154 photographs, spanning her project of 19 years, in this series, Larch, Spruce, Fir, Birch, Hand, Blast Hole Pond Road, Newfoundland 2007–2026. The sequence is composed of 77 black-and-white photographs taken on 35 mm film and 77 reprises as colour digital photographs. They are presented as pairs and showcase Creates’ close attention to processes of time, memory, and local ecologies. The photographs of the artist’s hand in the empty spaces where individual trees have been lost in hurricanes and other windstorms point to the impact the climate crisis has had on the ecosystem, as well as a “place-based” history of the site in Portugal Cove where the artist has lived and worked since 2002. The book includes an essay by award-winning poet and author Matthew Hollett, based in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Marlene Creates is a Canadian multi-disciplinary artist and educator based in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland.

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