Art about Life Form Encounters: Making Sense of Place in the Okanagan Region by Megumi Yamamoto B.F.A., The University of Calgary, 2014 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF FINE ARTS in THE COLLEGE OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Visual Arts) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Okanagan) July 2018 © Megumi Yamamoto, 2018 i The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the College of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis/dissertation entitled: Art about Life Form Encounters: Making Sense of Place in the Okanagan Region submitted by Megumi Yamamoto in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Fine Arts Aleksandra Dulic, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisor Carolyn MacHardy, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Briar Craig, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies Supervisory Committee Member Hussein Keshani, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies University Examiner Greg Garrard, Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies External Examiner ii Abstract My research explores how creating art can be a method of connecting to an unfamiliar environment. Positioning myself as a newcomer to the Okanagan, I observe, document, and work with the various life forms I encounter in Kelowna over a two-year time period to demonstrate how through creating art, a sense of place and an appreciation for a place can arise over time in an individual’s mind. In the creative research, I ask the following questions: How can creating visual art about a local natural environment develop a newcomer’s sense of place? And how might creating art about the experience of a place enhance or facilitate the development of one’s connection to a place and sense of belonging? Informed by hermeneutic phenomenology and working in various mediums, I use observation and interaction as forms of lived experience and art making as a method of generating meaning and knowledge. My artwork isolates and seeks to identify the individual life forms I encounter in Kelowna in order to deconstructing the environment – a complex interconnected system – to acquaint myself with the land, resulting in a body of work presenting a construction of my perspectival experience. Giving significance to the commonplace and easily overlooked aspects of nature as important place-defining elements within the urban environment (my everyday-surroundings), I hope to encourage viewers to reflect on their own perceptions of place and to consider the significance that life forms have in shaping the way in which a place is perceived. My work engages with the ideas put forward by Jakob von Uexküll, Elen-Maarja Trell and Bettina van Hoven, Rachel D. Kroencke, Nina Katchadourian, Lynette Shultz, Megan K. Halpern and Hannah Star Rogers, Joseph Cornell, Walter Benjamin, and Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari. iii Lay Summary As a newcomer to Kelowna, I use art making as a method of actively connecting to a new place. I observe, document, draw, and interact with the life forms that live in the urban environment of Kelowna, British Columbia, creating work in various mediums including drawing, printmaking, painting, Smartphone photography, and installation. My body of work and written thesis demonstrates how by engaging with the life forms of a place through creative expression, an appreciation for one’s natural surroundings arises, which results in familiarity and a sense of belonging to a place. iv Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ............................................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ...........................................................................................................................v List of Tables ............................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................x Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................1 1.1 The Creative Research ................................................................................................ 3 1.2 Purpose ........................................................................................................................ 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review .......................................................................................................9 2.1 Phenomenology ......................................................................................................... 13 2.2 Heuristic Reduction .................................................................................................. 14 2.3 Intentionality ............................................................................................................. 15 2.4 Umwelt ...................................................................................................................... 16 2.5 Art about Place as a Form of Mapping ..................................................................... 17 Chapter 3: Creative Production (Methodology) .......................................................................19 3.1 Field Book Documentation ....................................................................................... 19 3.2 Smartphone Camera Roll and Instagram as Research Methods ............................... 33 3.3 Drawing and Zinc Plate Etching ............................................................................... 34 3.4 Found Objects Collection ......................................................................................... 41 3.5 Assemblage ............................................................................................................... 45 v 3.6 Wunderkammer ......................................................................................................... 50 3.7 Objects in Suspension (Results) ................................................................................ 53 Chapter 4: Conclusions ...............................................................................................................67 Works Cited ..................................................................................................................................71 vi List of Tables Table 1. Life Form Encounters ..................................................................................................... 20 vii List of Figures Figure 1. Instagram account .......................................................................................................... 33 Figure 2. Zinc plate etchings on Hahnemühle copperplate paper ................................................. 37 Figure 3. Encounter exhibition at Sandhill Wines (2017) ............................................................ 38 Figure 4. Etchings displayed with a champagne filler (2017) ...................................................... 39 Figure 5. Entanglement installation (2017) .................................................................................. 40 Figure 6. Assemblage of objects ................................................................................................... 41 Figure 7. Wasp nest and male Vespula germanica (2018) ........................................................... 44 Figure 8. Asclepias syriaca (2017) ............................................................................................... 45 Figure 9. Tragopogon (2017) ........................................................................................................ 45 Figure 10. Untitled (Butterfly Habitat) series, Homage to Joseph Cornell (2017) ...................... 48 Figure 11. Quercus rubra (2017) .................................................................................................. 49 Figure 12. Wunderkammer (2017) ................................................................................................ 52 Figure 13. Wasp Nest Paper (2018) .............................................................................................. 55 Figure 14. Objects in Suspension installation (2018) ................................................................... 56 Figure 15. Ponderosa Pine Needle Bundles hanging over boxes of pinned insects (2018) .......... 56 Figure 16. Gathering (2018) ......................................................................................................... 57 Figure 17. Objects in Suspension exhibition ................................................................................. 57 Figure 18. Dried plants at the FINA Gallery entryway (2018) ..................................................... 58 Figure 19. Bark Beetle Paintings (2018) ...................................................................................... 59 Figure 20. Bark Beetle Paintings (2018) .....................................................................................