KPU fine arts class collaborates with artists to create project on climate change

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After spending almost a month at Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s Surrey campus, the “Upstream/Downriver Walking the stɑl̓əw̓ Watershed” art project has left the Spruce Gallery. The closing reception was held on Sept. 29. 

The project’s focus is on the lower Fraser River watershed and produces a visual representation of the effects of climate change in a local aspect. 

KPU got involved with the art exhibition after fine arts instructor Liz Toohey-Wiese attended the showing at the Fort Langley museum earlier this year. She connected with the artists and asked if the work could be installed at the Surrey campus. 

Toohey-Wiese decided to get her fine arts students involved in collaborating on a spatial drawing for the exhibition. The drawing would be created from sticks, branches, and garbage found in Cougar Creek. She also invited artist Tracy Stewart to work alongside students in her special topics class. 

Toohey-Wiese wanted to get her class involved in the exhibition because of what they could learn from it and so they could understand the work that went into the project. To create the spatial drawing, her class had a day to collect materials, and took two weeks to install the gallery. During this time, her students learned the various steps that go into installing a gallery. 

“I think those are really great hands-on skills for the fine arts students to learn,” she says. 

Fourth year fine arts student Dylan Goguen was one of the students who worked on the exhibit. He says the class worked with the artists to use man-made and natural objects to build and capture what he calls a “small tributary that feeds into the Fraser River.” 

Goguen says some difficulties from collaborating on the project was getting 20 people to agree on a single vision while making sure each idea was heard. 

One of the main ideas with art is raising awareness of climate change, he says. When people see the installations, he wants them to recognize the garbage that was used to create it and better understand the effects of climate change at the local level. 

“Anytime someone looks at [the art], whether they want to be affected by it or not, they’re going to be by just being in the presence of it,” Goguen says. 

Toohey-Wiese also says the importance of the gallery and how a visual representation of climate change can give people a better idea of the severity of climate change effects. 

“I think numbers do very little to move people. We hear about 2 C of warming and that we need to prevent that from happening, but I think it’s very abstract for people. Visual art is something I think people can connect to more easily,” she says. 

“I think that the lived experiences that the students have, and artists that are dealing with climate change, what they have I think that does a lot more to move people.”

Toohey-Wiese says she wants people to start thinking about the waterways that are close to them, and teaching this class has made her think about the Fraser River a lot more, especially on her commute to campus. 

“I’m hoping [the art] could be the opening of a relationship to the watershed [people] live in. Once you feel a sense of connection to something like that, that would be motivation to act on things like climate change and pollution and the things in the Fraser River that need taking care of.” 

The art exhibition was previously displayed at the White Rock Museum and the Langley Centennial Museum.