As a settler of European descent, I am grateful for the opportunity to live and work on Treaty 1 territory, the ancestral lands of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, Dene Peoples and the homeland of the Red River Métis. I recognize and have come to appreciate the importance of Indigenous peoples’ knowledge-sharing culture and tradition as protectors of the natural world. My water comes from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
BIOGRAPHY
Tracy Peters is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist based in Winnipeg on Treaty 1 Territory. She uses photography, moving images, sculpture and installation to examine the entanglements of human, non-human and more-than-human processes in response to eroding landscapes, threatened environments, and the climate crisis. Peters has received grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Manitoba Arts Council, and the Winnipeg Arts Council, and has attended residencies which include a partnership between Void Gallery and The Social Studios and Gallery in Derry, Northern Ireland; the ArtCenter/South Florida-MAWA artist exchange program in Miami, Florida; the Plug In ICA Summer Institute in Winnipeg, Manitoba; the Independent Imaging Retreat (Film Farm) in Mount Forest, Ontario; ‘Earthed’ at The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada; a virtual residency presented by AllArtNow (Sweden) in partnership with Jiser (Spain), MAWA and Platform Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba; and a partnership between Residence Botkyrka and AllArtNow in Stockholm, SE. Her work has exhibited across Canada, in Europe and Australia.
ARTIST STATEMENT
In my interdisciplinary practice, I am drawn to threatened habitats that are in the midst of cataclysmic change. What deeply motivates me is resilient behaviour in ecosystems that enable their adaptation to human intervention. Often, I carry out my work and research in natural environments where unpredictable weather and ecological surprises challenge me to adapt my studio production to biological processes.
In my recent work, I use photographic materials in collaboration with natural forces to collect impressions from the passage of time, light and weather. For example, I wove giant photographs into an abandoned grain shed, and embedded light-sensitive paper in a stone beach as witness to the effects of climate on the ecosystem. This allows me to communicate with the environment in an attempt to understand its physical knowledge. Through these haptic interventions, I respond to the wind and water in ways that parallel those of my body, such as breathing, pulse and consciousness.