As a descendant of European settlers, I am grateful for the opportunity to live and work on Treaty 1 territory, homeland of the Red River Métis and the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininew, Anishininew, Dakota Oyate, Denesuline. I recognize and have come to appreciate the importance of Indigenous peoples’ knowledge-sharing culture and tradition as protectors of the natural world. I acknowledge that my water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
BIOGRAPHY
Tracy Peters is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist based on Treaty 1 Territory in Winnipeg. She uses photography, moving images, sculpture and installation to examine the entanglements of human and more-than-human processes in response to eroding landscapes, threatened environments, and the climate crisis. Peters has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council, and has attended national and international artist residencies. Her work has exhibited across Canada, in Europe and Australia, and has been written about in art publications including Border Crossings and Peripheral Review.
ARTIST STATEMENT
In my multidisciplinary practice, I am drawn to threatened habitats that are in the midst of cataclysmic change. What deeply motivates me is resilient behaviour in ecosystems that enable their adaptation to human intervention. Often, I carry out my work and research in natural environments where unpredictable weather and ecological surprises challenge me to adapt my studio production to biological processes.
In my recent work, I use photographic materials in collaboration with natural forces to collect impressions from the passage of time, light and weather. For example, I wove giant photographs into an abandoned grain shed, and embedded light-sensitive paper in a stone beach as witness to the effects of climate on the ecosystem. This allows me to communicate with the environment in an attempt to understand its physical knowledge. Through these haptic interventions, I respond to the wind and water in ways that parallel those of my body, such as breathing, pulse and consciousness.