The Sowers

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Laura St. Pierre, “Vivaria,” 2018

archival inkjet on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 25" x 29” (courtesy of the artist)

The humble pursuit of gardening takes a dystopian turn in Saskatoon artist Laura St. Pierre’s latest photographic series, The Sowers. 

St. Pierre imagines some vague but not-too-distant future where makeshift gardens created from post-consumer detritus – bottles, jars, plastic sheeting and even old motor vehicles – are tended by mysterious figures clad head to foot in protective body suits. 

Eight of her images, along with three short videos, will be on view at VivianeArt in Calgary from Jan. 17 to Feb. 29, in conjunction with the Exposure Photo Festival. It’s the first time she has shown these works, which carry echoes of earlier projects that also explore the relationship between nature and urban settings.

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Laura St. Pierre, “Berm Near Tracks,” 2019

inkjet on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 37" x 43” (courtesy of the artist)

In mood, these latest works vary from the dramatic to the mundane, but they all contribute to a narrative mystery: Where is this? Who are these people? And what is going on?

The work has a subtle thread of religious allusions, something St. Pierre, a Francophone from Saskatchewan, links to her Catholic upbringing. In Vivaria, for instance, a beautifully lit nocturnal scene, a woman tends a hilltop shrine of terrariums housed in scavenged glassware, whether vases, wine glasses, a punch bowl or an old coffee pot. 

“The work is constructed photography, or staged photography, so it’s not documentary in any way,” says St. Pierre. “There’s a fictional character who has set up these situations, so it’s like an author would work, where somebody is creating these things.” 

“In this body of work, the fictional character is called the Sower. I’m leaving clues for the viewer, with the photographs and the short videos, to guess what context the Sower is existing in, both with the appearance of the Sower, and also the landscape of the Sower, and the places the Sower is inhabiting."

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Laura St. Pierre, “Collection,” 2018

video still, archival inkjet on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 16” x 9” (courtesy of the artist)

Berm shows a different garden, a few glass containers perched on a jerry-built bench beside a stretch of pavement, not unlike a roadside shrine for an accident victim. The Sower strides purposefully, her protective plastic sheath billowing behind.

In Collection, another nocturnal scene, the religious allusions are more overt. Here, the Sower’s suit evokes a nun’s habit. Her uplifted face catches the light, creating a chiaroscuro radiance that would be at home in a painting by Caravaggio. Two sheets of hanging plastic reflect the light, beaming down like spiritual rays from heaven. The woman gazes, seemingly enraptured, at a tall sunflower. 

Other images feel more secular. Greenhouse at Anderson Hall shows a pile of rubble from a demolished house. Two vehicles parked behind the wreckage are filled with plants. In Hothouse, the setting is an abandoned factory, and in Pond at Midtown, an underground parking garage. Bathed in cool blue light, Poolside Garden is a rooftop scene that shows plants sheltered under deck chairs draped in plastic sheeting.

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Laura St. Pierre, “Poolside Garden,” 2018

archival inkjet on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag, 36” x 75” (courtesy of the artist)

St. Pierre has been working in a similar vein for more than a decade, blending sculpture, performance and photography in images at times so large viewers may almost feel they are stepping into an installation. 

The Sowers nods to two earlier bodies of work: Urban Vernacular, which saw St. Pierre photograph temporary shelters cobbled together from urban refuse by the Scavenger, another fictional alter-ego, and Spectral Garden, images of plants from evolving landscapes that have been preserved in jars of isopropyl alcohol. St. Pierre characterizes the specimens as “a kind of archeology of the future.”

Sakatchewan curator Rose Bouthillier, writing last year in Blackflash magazine, noted that St. Pierre’s complex works tap into “solastalgia,” a word coined by Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht to reflect the melancholia caused by the destruction of a loved environment.

“St. Pierre has developed this complexity – desire and aversion, serenity and gloom – in her practice over time, addressing the fallout of industrialized life ways, while avoiding simplistic critiques or appeals,” Bouthillier writes.

St. Pierre’s research is informed by American transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, among others.

“Thoreau saw nature and culture as separate forces, with culture having a negative influence on nature,” she says. “His ‘wilderness ethic’ championed ecological preservation, and he often contrasted the untouched wilderness with society, the former positioned as a source of physical and spiritual nourishment and the latter as a negative force that transforms humans into sleep-walking capitalists. 

“Although Thoreau is still deeply influential, many contemporary thinkers argue that viewing nature and culture as being separate hinders our ability to cope with impending ecological crisis.” 

St. Pierre points to a contemporary American author, Michael Pollan, who notes that humans have always influenced and shaped the natural world. He suggests the garden as a metaphor for this relationship.

The work in this show was made in different cities, including Edmonton, Grande Prairie, Alta., and Saskatoon, where St. Pierre teaches at the University of Saskatchewan. Her pieces has been featured in two shows at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton – Another Landscape Show, in 2019, and The News From Here, the 2013 version of the Alberta Biennial of Contemporary Art. ■

The Sowers is on view at VivianeArt in Calgary from from Jan. 17 to Feb. 29, 2020.

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