Valerie Durant

The Sky Project 
Commissioned for the Taiwanese Festival 2020, Installed at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 
This body of work brought artists from Canada, Taiwan and around the world "under the same sky" during the period of incredible uncertainty  during the summer of 2020.

During my hours of solitude and reflection, I look to the sky and the tree canopy and find solace in this shared experience. Apart, on distant shores, the sky unites us in the magnificence of our diversity of colour and light. We shutter to the depths of our collective core by the two pandemics, that of COVID-19 and the severity of the depths of systemic racism. Through this, my hope is that we are awoken to the realization that we are one, as sensing humans, connected in the complexity of the web of life. As humans, we can share equally and joyfully in the movement of clouds, the soaring of birds and the delicate flutter of leaves as they fall to the earth, lifted by the breeze. With the continuum of the returning sun and moon, the cycles of life, we can find unity and peace, amidst the chaos in the world around. I dream that we are trees, in a grove of trees, living symbiotically, our branches flex and flow, our canopy shyly touching as we sway rhythmically, in syncopation. We are different, each one unique yet sharing commonalities. Blood courses through our veins and we share the sky above. As trees, we inherently possess the quality of nurture, empathy, equality and reciprocity. We are reliantly intertwined in our roots, connected to the earth, yet in our canopy, we are free to imagine and return to the stars. Can we be more like trees in our relationship with others as we look to the sky for answers?

https://gallery.vancouvertaiwanfest.ca/Infinite-Sky-For-Everett