Press Release - For Immediate Release

Three northern artists to exhibit at international forest science conference in Banff

Claire Kujundzic and Bill Horne of Wells, BC and Annerose Georgeson of Vanderhoof, BC will exhibit their pine beetle based art at the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) conference in Banff, Alberta, Canada from September 15-19, 2013.

Forest scientists from around the world gather periodically at various IUFRO working groups. The Banff conference brings together the Ecology and Management of Bark and Wood Boring Insects group with the Population Dynamics of Forest Insects group. The conference partners are IUFRO, the University of British Columbia's Department of Forestry, Natural Resources Canada, and the Government of Alberta. Their topic is Forest Insect Disturbance in a Warming Environment.

Kujundzic and Georgeson both appear in a chapter about Mountain Pine Beetle inspired art in Andrew Nikiforuk's book, Empire of the Beetle. Georgeson organized the first "Red and Blue" group exhibition of beetle art at the Saik'uz First Nation near Vanderhoof, BC in 2007, which went on to tour many communities in north central British Columbia.

“I’m very excited to have this opportunity to share my work with an international audience,” says Kujundzic, who created an installation of torn, stained canvas "trees" for the athletes’ villages in Vancouver and Whistler during the 2010 Winter Olympic & Paralympic Games. She also exhibited her paintings and "trees" at IUFRO conferences in Montesclaros, Spain and in Sopron, Hungary in 2011.

Horne is looking forward to sharing his silkscreen investigations of MPB galleries and hearing the latest research at the conference.

Forest insects and pathogens affect all of us. The Mountain Pine Beetle infestation has affected over16.3 million hectares of forest and 675 million cubic metres of wood in BC, making it one of the most critical outbreaks in the world. Devastation on this scale has impacted the economy, culture and environment of every community in the Cariboo-Chilcotin-Nechako Region.

Dead pines have become a potent symbol of the fragility of the environment, and the artists have used a variety of techniques in their art to depict what it feels like to live in the midst of such rapidly changing forests. The result is an evocative, diverse series of work.

To cover their travel and conference accomodation costs, the artists have embarked on a special fundraising initiative: making a selection of their art available for sale.

Among the pieces available is a unique silkscreen print edition of Mountain Pine Beetle "galleries" that the three artists produced together on used, reclaimed denim material - a reference to "denim pines". Other artworks range from semi-abstraction to representational, from vivid to muted colour palettes, and from small to large sizes.