Foundation
Lee Bae: UNION
February 24 → June 20, 2021
Lee Bae’s dedication to presence requires our own, offering a moment of respite and contemplation
Online on Zoom
Sunday, May 2, 2021
From 2 PM to 4 PM EST
Free admission
Reservations required
Capacity: 60 participants
Update April 21, 2021: This event is fully booked.
Before reserving, please see the list of materials provided and required. Materials provided must be picked up at the PHI Foundation. If this is not possible, please advise us. We will evaluate on a case-by-case basis and contact you.
Drawn to Fire: Charcoal Rubbings and Sowing Seeds is an online art workshop created and hosted by artist Alana Bartol and artist, botanist, educator Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed—both based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary)—in collaboration with the PHI Foundation’s education team. The live event will take place on Sunday, May 2, from 2 PM to 4 PM EST and is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION, which runs from February 24 to June 20, 2021 at the PHI Foundation.
Context
This online art workshop draws upon Alana’s explorations of former coal mining operations in the Crowsnest Pass, from which she creates artworks that respond to the past, present, and future of coal mining in the region. Workshop participants will be introduced to several artworks in Alana’s current exhibition, Processes of Remediation: art, relationships, nature at University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, which are centred around the site of the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project in the Crowsnest Pass, Alberta. As a way to further explore a connection to Grassy Mountain, Alana is collaborating with Latifa to prepare seed packets of plants that grow, or have been known to grow, on Grassy Mountain for participants to plant and take care of.
Art Workshop
The guided art workshop Drawn to Fire: Charcoal Rubbings and Sowing Seeds will last 2 hours and will unfold in two parts. During the first part, participants will be offered the opportunity to learn about Alana's artworks responding to the Grassy Mountain Coal Project. They will then reveal one of Alana’s ‘invisible’ milk drawings, that represents the westslope cutthroat trout, through charcoal rubbing. Critical habitat for the westslope cutthroat trout sits within the proposed Grassy Mountain Coal Project footprint. These fish are just one of the many species at risk threatened by open-pit coal mining in Alberta. Participants will then be encouraged to create a milk drawing of something disappearing from the environment.
During the second part of the workshop, Latifa will present the Seeds for Grassy Mountain project. She will discuss some of the plants in the project (fireweed, yarrow, lupine, paintbrush, tufted hairgrass) and the importance of native plants. Participants will be provided with native seeds and will be introduced to methods of seed preparation such as cold moist stratification and seed scarification. At the end of the workshop, participants will reveal their milk drawings with charcoal and share what they drew and why.
The workshop will be offered in English. A French live translation will be provided through Zoom.
Drawn to Fire: Charcoal Rubbings and Sowing Seeds is an online art workshop created and hosted by artist Alana Bartol and artist, botanist, educator Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed—both based in Mohkinstsis (Calgary)—in collaboration with the PHI Foundation’s education team. The live event will take place on Sunday, May 2, from 2 PM to 4 PM EST and is offered in conjunction with the exhibition Lee Bae: UNION, which runs from February 24 to June 20, 2021 at the PHI Foundation.
List of materials provided by the artists and the Foundation.
Pick-up at the Foundation.
PART 1: For the drawing portion of the workshop
MATERIALS PROVIDED
- 3 pieces of paper
- 1 natural charcoal chunk
- 1 invisible drawing by Alana from her ongoing, participatory artwork Westslope Cutthroat Trout (a canary in the coal mine)
MATERIALS REQUIRED (NOT PROVIDED)
- Milk
- Paintbrush
PART 2: For the Seeds for Grassy Mountain portion of the workshop
- 2 seed packets from Seeds for Grassy Mountain (one packet of seeds that do not require any treatment to germinate, and one packet of seeds that requires either stratification OR scarification to germinate).
PARTICIPATION OPTIONS
For this portion of the workshop, you may or may not need additional materials. In terms of materials, there are 3 options:
1. Seeds
Each participant will receive two packets of seeds from Seeds for Grassy Mountain : one that does not require any treatment to germinate, and another packet of seeds that requires either stratification OR scarification to germinate. Materials required for germinating seeds are listed below. Participants will need materials for basic seed planting and for either scarification or stratification.
2. Planting outdoors
In addition, seeds may simply be grown outdoors, so there is an option to participate without obtaining any additional materials. The advantage of completing the recommended processes, however, is that they do quite significantly increase the success of germinating the seeds.
3. Plant later
During the workshop, you may just learn about the processes of preparing the seeds and plant them later.
MATERIALS REQUIRED (NOT PROVIDED)
- Pots with drainage to sow seeds
- Potting medium sufficient to fill pots, a standard peat or coconut coir based potting medium are recommended
- Tap water or distilled drinking water (bottled drinking water contains distilled water). For people using well water, please see note below.*
- Label (consider repurposing old milk containers or similar materials)
- Permanent marker
For the seeds that require scarification or stratification, you will also need the following:
For seeds that require stratification:
- 2 teaspoons of sand (which must be sterilized*). Horticultural cactus sand is already sterilized.
- Resealable plastic bag, e.g. Ziploc bag
- Distilled water is the best option (bottled drinking water contains distilled water). Tap water filtered with a Brita filter is also suitable. For people using well water, please see note below.*
- Masking tape (for making a label)
- Marker or pen
*How to sterilize sand: bake sand in the oven at 200 degrees Fahrenheit for 30 minutes.
*Well water: Please note that a high mineral content found in some well water may inhibit the growth of some plants. Well water may be filtered to remove minerals. Reverse osmosis or a water softening system can be used to remove minerals from water. Distilled drinking water may also be purchased (bottled drinking water).
For seeds that require scarification:
- 2 pieces of medium-grit sandpaper (10cm x 10cm is a sufficient size)
Alana Bartol
Alana Bartol comes from a long line of water witches. Through her work, she creates relationships between the personal sphere and the landscape, particular to this time of ecological crisis. A multidisciplinary artist with a B.F.A. from the University of Windsor and an M.F.A. from Detroit’s Wayne State University, her work has been presented in festivals and galleries nationally and internationally including Berlin Feminist Film Festival, Istanbul Experimental Film Festival, SIMULTAN festival (Romania), Museo de la Ciudad (Mexico), Groupe Intervention Vidéo (Montréal), Karsh-Masson Gallery (Ottawa), University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Walter Phillips Gallery (Banff), Plug In ICA (Winnipeg), Art Gallery of Windsor, Latitude 53 (Edmonton), Access Gallery (Vancouver), and InterAccess (Tkaronto/Toronto). Of Scottish, German, English, French, Irish, and Danish ancestry, Bartol is a settler Canadian currently living in Treaty 7 territory in Mohkínstsis (Calgary), Alberta where she teaches at Alberta University of the Arts. alanabartol.com
Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed
Latifa Pelletier-Ahmed is a botanist, herbalist, educator, researcher, and artist. Latifa’s work centres around building connections between plants and people, with the goal of establishing relationships that challenge processes of exploitive extraction and seek a more sustainable and just future. Latifa’s most recent art practice includes a collaboration with Alana Bartol for the piece Seeds for Grassy Mountain and “…if we ignore them they will disappear…” excerpt from Robin Wall Kimmerer curated as part of a group exhibition with u’s gallery.
Latifa lives and works in Mohkínstsis (Calgary), Alberta, Treaty 7 Territory where her efforts centre on recognizing the ongoing destruction of at-risk habitats including native prairie and grassland. Latifa operates a consulting service, Latifa’s Herbs, which offers health consultations as well as educational services related to plants including identification, processing, harvesting, edible and medicinal usage, and cultivating. She is also the co-owner of ALCLA Native Plants, a native plant nursery that was founded in 1992. She is a former faculty member at Pacific Rim College in Victoria, BC. Latifa is formally qualified with an MSc in Herbal Medicine from Middlesex University, London, UK and a BSc in Botany from the University of Calgary. latifasherbs.com / alclanativeplants.com
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