Earth Day 2021 - Restore our Earth Art Museum Project

2021

We are pleased to present this special video in honour of #EarthDay2021, under the #RestoreOurEarth Art Museum Project from EarthDay.org. Featuring ‘Archipelago’ by Canadian artist Lyndal Osborne.

Thumbnail image: Lyndal Osborne, ‘Archipelago’, 2008. Dimensions: variable. Approximately 30 x 25 feet. Mixed media installation: sunflower stalks and grapefruit skins chine colle with lithograph drawings or painted, wire, glass beads, DNA model connectors, laboratory glassware, metal caps and Bunsen burners, sea balls, seed pods, sculpey, silicone rubber, resin, papier mache, paint and dye. Art Gallery of Alberta Collection, purchased with funds from the John and Maggie Mitchell Endowment Fund, 2017. Photo: Mark Freeman.We are pleased to present this special video in honour of #EarthDay2021, under the #RestoreOurEarth Art Museum Project from EarthDay.org. Featuring ‘Archipelago’ by Canadian artist Lyndal Osborne.
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[Music]

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my name is danielle siemens and i am the

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collections manager and curatorial

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associate at the art gallery of alberta

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today we are celebrating earth day by

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looking at one work from our collection

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by the edmonton-based artist lindell

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osborne

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lindell osborne has long been interested

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in issues related to the environment

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and we believe this work titled

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archipelago is particularly well suited

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to this year’s earth day theme

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which is together we can restore our

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earth

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in this incredible installation osborne

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is specifically commenting on

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issues of genetic modification and the

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powers of the global biotechnology

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industry

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so she is interested in how genetic

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modification and engineering

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are shrinking the earth’s biodiversity

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and is concerned that we as consumers

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are not well informed about gmo foods

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about seed patterning about the

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chemicals in our agriculture

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and the long-term effects of that on the

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environment and our bodies

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in this installation lindell osborne is

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getting down to the molecular level

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where the manipulation of plant life

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takes place

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she’s created cells at gigantic

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proportions

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16 of them in total throughout the

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installation

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and she’s made them out of materials

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that she’s gathered from nature

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such as sunflower stalks or grapefruit

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skins

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that she has manipulated and organized

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to allude to the structures of a cell

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and then over top of these cells she’s

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used wire and colored glass beads

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to represent the structures of dna

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and then floating on top are these other

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objects that represent the pathogens

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that contaminate or are injected into

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the cell

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she’s also used materials from the realm

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of science

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such as bunsen burners or other glass

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glassware from laboratories and this is

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a nod to the manipulation

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of plants that takes place within the

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lab

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running throughout the entire

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installation is this river-like form

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which osborne has constructed from these

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tiny

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little gardens so it gives a sense of a

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kind of never-ending river

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running throughout the countryside

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specifically

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this is a representation or a reference

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to the north saskatchewan river in

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edmonton which runs throughout the

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entire city

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and at one point comes very near the

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artist’s own home

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and it’s a kind of reminder to the

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viewer to not pollute

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our waterways the life source that fuels

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us

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humans and the plants and animals around

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us

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those miniature garden forms also

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reference the

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biodiversity that we are at risk of

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losing or are already in process of

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losing

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through humans technological

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interference

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so lindell osborne is an artist who has

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long been interested in issues in the

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environment

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and climate change and she understands

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that it will take a radical shift in

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human behavior to alter the course of

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events

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her work has the remarkable ability to

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incite viewers to

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think carefully about their own

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environment and their place within it

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and she asks us to treat the world with

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respect and care to ensure the

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well-being of our future generations

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so thank you for joining us for this

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earth day feature if you’re interested

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in seeing more

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works from around the world that deal

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with similar issues related to the

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environment and climate change

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you can check out earthday.org

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[Music]

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you

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