Lot
29
Aftermath of the Kenow Fire, Waterton Lakes National Park
Inkjet print mounted on Dibond, 2019
102 x 127 cm,
édition de 3
Estimate
$3 000
Created one year after the devastating Kenow wildfire in Waterton Lakes National Park, this image forms part of Rutkauskas’s recent body of work titled After the Fire. Although the increased frequency and severity of forest fires may be attributed to climate change, wildfire is also a rejuvenating natural phenomenon. After the Fire seeks to balance the destructive aspects of fire with a complex sense of optimism.
Biographical note
Andreas Rutkauskas was born in Winnipeg (Treaty 1 Territory). He currently resides on the traditional unceded territory of the Syilx (Kelowna), where he is a lecturer at the University of British Columbia’s Okanagan campus. His projects involve photography and video, often focusing on landscapes that have undergone changes due to a range of technologies; examples include surveillance along the Canada/U.S. border, cycles of industrialization and deindustrialization in Canada’s oil patch, and most recently, the aftermath and regeneration following wildfires in Western Canada.
Rutkauskas was the inaugural recipient of a residency at the Grantham Foundation for the Arts and the Environment in 2020. In 2018, he was a Research Fellow with the Canadian Photography Institute, and he was a finalist for the Gabriele Basilico International Prize in Architecture and Landscape in 2016. His work has been exhibited in public art galleries and museums across Canada, as well as internationally. Rutkauskas’s work is held in private and public collections, including the Canadian War Museum and the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery.