“When you live something, it becomes a part of you,” says Montreal-based artist Ramona Ramlochand, of how her travels inspired her work. Focused on exploring the unpredictable effects of climate change, her exhibit Green Swans: Wildfires and Rising Seas, is on display at Centre A: Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art, until Nov. 16.

“We are linked to the planet, our well-being depends on the wellbeing of the planet, but our focus was always on us, and maybe it shouldn’t be,” says Ramlochand.

A contrast of (un)predictability

Curated by Alice Ming Wai Jim, professor of contemporary art history at Concordia University, this exhibit is Ramlochand’s first solo one in Vancouver. Its name, Green Swans, refers to unpredictable environmental events brought upon by climate change. Featuring video and photographic installations, including those involving swans, the artist confronts the effects of climate change.

“I hope that the audience sees the beauty of the swans and the destruction at the same time,” she says.

Ramlochand attached garbage bags repurposed from her neighbourhood to the swans’ tails, highlighting how single-use plastics pollute the environment. Although the exhibit does not include an image of a green swan, the artist draws on the figure as a metaphor to represent a different perspective towards environmental destruction. One that is progressive and optimistic about sustainability as a solution.

“For example, when you think [of] green swans as an event, the electric car is good for the environment, and it is going to be the wave of the future,” she explains. “It is a sustainable way of looking at the problem, [and] the green swan is the event of the electrification of the cars.”

Her exhibit also features an installation with a video showing the sea flowing and rising. According to Ramlochand, she produced the video in black and white rather than in colour for a distinctive and intense effect.

The artist also notes how the white plastic at the bottom of the projector was a “happy accident.” Put there initially to protect the piece, she decided to leave it as part of the installation, allowing the swan in the video to dive into the water and symbolically become a piece of plastic.

Voyeurism and imperfections

Ramlochand sees the covid-19 pandemic, which increased reliance on single-use plastics, as a step backwards for the environment. She states that people took “a voyeuristic approach,” meaning they understood the environmental concern, but ultimately decided to sit back and watch.

“The crime is happening, and we are not necessarily all participating and stopping it,” she says. “That’s what I mean by the voyeuristic approach.”

According to the artist, adopting sustainable practices is the solution, as represented by the metaphor of the green swan. It was also important for Ramlochand that Green Swans maintains a tactile quality. This is done through the inclusion of imperfections, particularly in her braiding of images.

“The braiding for the most part [is] the same images braided together to give the work more depth and to also make it not perfect,” she adds.

The artist has previously worked with braiding images, particularly when reimagining the places of her travels. While she has travelled extensively, it was her trips to Africa and Southeast Asia that had the biggest influence on her work. After returning to Montreal in her early thirties, she started playing with the photographs she took of her travels and began an art career.

“I started braiding because I spent a lot of time on the computer, and I wanted to do something tactile,” the artist says. “I think of [Green Swans] as being an installation work using photography and video.”

Ramlochand notes that working with the curator, Jim, provided an opportunity to see a different perspective of her work. The artist and the curator met 20 years ago when Jim was curating an art show that included Ramlochand.

“[Jim] is a very hands-on curator, which I really like, and has a lot of input which made me see the work through her eyes,” the artist says of their recent collaboration.

For more information on the exhibit, see https://centrea.org/2024/09/green-swans-wildfires-and-rising-seas.