Anna Gaby-Trotz X Richelle Forsey
The idea of wilderness – land uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings – raises questions about how much truly natural land is left in a world that values the production of goods over people and the land and water.
Based in Guelph, Ontario, Anna Gaby Trotz and Richelle Forsey work together under the moniker “The Landscape is Dead” (LIDs). Their collaboration brings together their independent photography and printmaking practices exploring the landscape. Of great interest to both of our practices is the landscape beyond Ontario’s urban centres where land and wilderness still exist. Richelle’s practice examines the edges of urban spaces where industry meets the natural environment (desire lines), while Anna’s work looks at the precarity of remote wilderness spaces.
Through collage and digital montage of their photographs, and text interventions “The Landscape is Dead” reflects the intersection of the landscape and the built environment for contemplation, to illuminate the complex and troubling questions about human impacts on the natural world. Through interventions in their interpretations of the landscape their work explores the balance between hope and despair/art and climate change with the goal to invoke consideration for the post-modern landscape.
Can we save the world by looking?