Valerie Durant
Influx: Waiting on the water
March 27 - May 3 Reception 6 to 8 pm New Leaf Editions Gallery
The project began on the cusp of early spring, 2020 and has unfurlled slowly like the flutter of fallen leaves.
Forest remnants, botanicals, flowers plastics all revealing their form
as ice dissipates in the receiving waters . The work reflects upon our impermanence, temporality and the continuum and regeneration that exists in nature.
The painterly images, incorporate analog and digital processes including scans, reversals and cyanotypes. This approach honours contemporary photographic practises, while referencing Dutch still-life paintings, memento mori, a reminder of the fleeting nature of life.
The work explores the persistence of time, continuum, lifecycles in nature, the infinite ebb and flow of matter and the personification of water as source.
Durant reflects on mortality, aging and the human condition, touching on themes of loss and human fragility.
The work serves as a mindful inquiry into our warming environment, interpreting climate change as a call for urgent self-reflection and global transformation, questioning contemporary notions of the fundamental materiality of both living and manufactured objects.