Garnet Dirksen
Social Studies
YORK VITRINES
NOV. 15 - DEC. 10, 2021
Social Studies is a series of colour photographs of landscapes from across the territories now known as Canada. Emerging from research into the fur trade, these images reflect the interrelationship between land and resources. An emphasis is placed on paths, routes and waterways. Here, Dirksen focuses on settler-created boundaries which permanently altered Indigenous Nations in the creation of settler states. The photographs are full of human traces but lack actual human presence, which reflects the erasure of Indigenous peoples and histories from many of these territories. With these images, Dirksen aims to eschew art historical notions of the “beautiful” or “wild” landscape, and instead show a sense of the continuity of the land and ongoing narratives and conflicts.
About the artist
Garnet Dirksen is a photographic artist from Merritt, British Columbia. His work revolves around themes of industry, the economy and social development, and connections between history and the present. Garnet holds a BFA (2017) from Thompson Rivers University, in Kamloops, B.C. and an MFA from Concordia University in Montréal, Q.C. (2020).
