Perma

This MRP, entitled ​Perma,​ is concerned with environmental change in Northern Canada, and has a specific focus on the ways permafrost and water are being altered by human activity. The accompanying exhibition will present these issues in an immersive, multimedia gallery exhibition. My visual project has developed through creative practice and discourse with scientists and Indigenous land-based researchers. It investigates permafrost thaw, from the direct effects of small-scale mining to the results of large-scale climate change on Inuvialuit, Gwich’in, Dene, and Trondek Hwetch’in traditional territories. The exhibit will show prehistoric material previously preserved and the transformation of thawing permafrost, alongside the altered spaces left behind. The goal of my research is to better understand changes happening in the Arctic, and all environments, using visual investigation to explore how colonial narratives alter nature and impact our relationship with land in the Anthropocene.