401 Richmond - Gareth Bate Art Projects

Indicator

Karen Abel - Toronto, Canada
Jessica Marion Barr - Toronto, Canada
Gareth Bate - Toronto, Canada

Installation

Birds, bats, bees. Indicator species signal the deteriorated state of ecosystems, warning us when our environs are in trouble. Three elegiac installations investigate the concept of biological indicators and the suffering of wildlife due to habitat destruction, climate change, and environmental contamination. A rain cloud of bird bones and a chandelier inhabited by crystalline cast-sugar bats float in the gallery space, encircled by a ghostly amphitheatre-like wall mural of the ancient Roman Coliseum hand drawn with liquid honey. A sound installation layering the calls and sounds of these animals pervades the ecological arena. Visitors will be embedded and implicated in the disastrous results of the global incursion of human ‘empire’, as manifested in our ailing ‘indicator’ species.

Sharing interests in ecological issues and unusual materials, the artists are creating installations that resonate concerns about species decline.

Learn More

www.garethbate.com/news_pages/indicator.html

65

401 Richmond Street West (Studio S-17 in the Basement Orange section)

This project is indoors.