In 2017, I brought my two furry companions and myself to a farm in Southern Ontario. Through exploration and attunement, I witnessed the unfolding of multispecies land relations on the site. The farm became a research site that informed my doctoral work, allowing me to observe and experience ecological connections within the land community—between plants, people, soil, and other animals. I discovered that the land and its inhabitants carry memories and histories of their entanglements with humans, particularly through industrial agriculture shaped by the Capitalocene, perpetuating what Rob Nixon describes as forms of “slow violence.” I also encountered histories and communities of care: individuals and groups working to protect and sustain refugias of biodiversity. Historic acts of care persist in the material bodies of those who were cared for, offering examples of how we might help heal and restore plant and animal communities.

As an artist listening to the land through visual arts–based research, the works here offer visual form to too often occluded connections. The works are composed as portraits—much like my previous pieces—of individuals I have met. Materially, the academic theory informing the work is integrated with organic materials from the environment that shape and support the subjects' lives. Here, the subject of a work is defined by, made up of, the land-based material on which they depend.