Land Art Residency

Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett (Incandescent Cloud), Alia Shahab, Lane Shordee, and Nikki Martens

After visiting Empire of Dirt in the summer of 2021, Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett were invited to gather a small community of collaborators to return in Summer 2022 for a self-directed Land Art Residency for two weeks. This ad-hoc team of artists have worked together in various combinations for over 10 years and this residency became the cohort’s first formal project as a group of five. With a shared interest in complex environments, found materials, experiential art-making, and collaboration, the cohort utilized the land at EoD to experiment with site-responsive concepts, prototypes, and material research, ranging from sketches, to community conversations, to medium-scale earthworks, among others. Land Art Residency at Empire of Dirt was supported with a Canada Council research grant, authored by Caitlin Brown.

C.A.H.O.O.T.S

Mia + Eric (Mia Rushton & Eric Moschopedis), Action Hero (Gemma Paintin & James Stenhouse), Patrick Blenkarn, and Milton Lim

C.A.H.O.O.T.S (Climate Artists Helping Others Organize To Survive) is a network of international, touring Social Practice artists that are committed to creating sustainable sectoral change and reducing climate harm in the face of the climate crisis. Six artists in C.A.H.O.O.T.S will together research and assess strategies for more sustainable creation and touring. The group will convene for a working conference at Empire of Dirt in April 2024.

Future Forests

Curated by Tara Nicholson, with artists Kai Choufour, Darren Fleet, Julya Hajnoczky, Caolan Leander, Leah McInnis, Jennifer Stillwell, prOphecy Sun, and Hjalmer Wenstob.

This four-week interdisciplinary residency in 2022 supported 8 BC artists, designed to immerse these artists in the Creston Community Forest and connect to future-thinking about the role of the forest.  This collaborative project inspired and extended Nicolson’s land-based practice that includes exhibitions, teaching, residencies and the start of her PhD research. This cohort of artists were challenged to make work about a contemporary, future-thinking ecosystem.