Marina Dawson
Drawing
marinadawson.com
The climate crisis is one of the few things I feel most cynical about. With yearly forest fires, record-high temperatures, mass extinctions of wildlife, and the looming effects of climate change, what landscape will be left to paint?
The Harvested Body is a personal eco-narrative, an exploration of the intersections of environmentalism, ecology and feminism, and a visual representation of the parallels between the treatment of the Canadian landscape by oppressive patriarchal systems and the treatment of women. I gravitate towards topics such as biodiversity, conservationism and how medical, political, justice, and religious systems leave both emotional and physical injuries on women's bodies.
Turmeric and natural inks are spread on my body, pressed onto rag paper to create an imprint, and paired with abstract landscape paintings. Aggressive moments of colour and saturation contrast salt and grain, working as a resistance to soak up colour, symbolizing the struggle against repression and the fight for expression.
Royal blues, charcoal black, and golden yellows stream into each other, creating an interplay of warm and cold and light and dark tones that scatter, drip, and flow across the page. I work intuitively to make meaning from these imperfect marks as trees and branches, hills and the body's curves, fungi and intestines, bodily fluids and rivers, dance in a fluid composition that flows freely within and around the body silhouette, illustrating the whimsical qualities of nature and women.
The Harvested Body emphasizes the interconnectedness of women and nature. We share a special relationship, both oppressed under the same means and conditions under patriarchy. In liberating women, we can also liberate nature and become the environmental stewards we all need to be. In calling out these conditions, I create with the hope that we will find our way; if not, I will immortalize what is left.
Harvested Body
The Harvested Body collection advocates for creating a sustainable and equitable future that requires recognizing the similarities between women's and nature's oppression. The collection explores the interconnectedness of biodiversity loss and industrialized farming, highlighting how these issues are rooted in opressive patriarchal and collonial naratives that also further contribute to the opression of women's rights and bodily autonomy, mainly, through the supression of abortion rights, medical bias and neglect and rape culture. In addition, the series also calls out cultural practices that further perpetuate said oppression. By drawing these parallels, the collection invites viewers to reconsider the consequences of a system that allows
Radiate
