Genevieve Robertson. Carbon Studies: Walking in the Dark. 2019. Detail of Lichen. Photo courtesy of Rachel Topham.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Article
Chaisson, Caitlin. “And Even Dust Can Burst into Flames, Genevieve Robertson—Carbon Studies: Walking in the Dark.”Ecocene 1, no. 2 (2020). https://doi.org/10.46863/ecocene.2020.31.
Article prepared for the issue “What is Environmental Consciousness? A Thematic Cluster.” The text is available in full, here, and an excerpt appears below.
Lichen (2019) is the largest drawing in a new body of work by Genevieve Robertson titled Carbon Studies: Walking in the Dark (2019), which was presented in a solo exhibition of the same name at Access Gallery, Vancouver, Canada. Branching out like bronchioles, the smokey tonal values of Lichen are created using carbon-based compounds—specifically the coal, graphite, and forest-fire derived charcoal the artist found and collected on walks in the Kootenay region of interior British Columbia. Grinding the materials with a pestle and mixing them with water and gum arabic, the pigments are then dispersed in inky plumes that produce alluvial patterns as the granular sediments are brushed across the surface of the paper.
Carbon Studies emerges on the heels of 2018, a year where British Columbia was ravaged by fire and endured a nearly month-long state of emergency. The worst fire season on record—and the second record-setting season in a row—2,115 fires burned 1.35 million hectares, disproportionately affecting on-reserve First Nations populations, and surrounding Indigenous territories. For the majority of the province’s population, however, the experience of the fires materialized in the haze of smoke that travelled vast distances on global jet streams, prompted advisories for children, elderly, and the immunocompromised in local meteorological reporting, and carried particulate matter that reduced visibility and darkened even the longest days of summer…