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Internationally-acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson moves to Victoria, turns attention to “Tall Trees Capital” of Canada – Port Renfrew

Jan 9 2018/in Media Release

For Immediate Release
Tuesday, January 9, 2017

Victoria, BC – Vancouver Island’s famed old-growth forests near Port Renfrew – known as Canada’s “Tall Trees Capital” – have attracted the attention of internationally acclaimed artist Kelly Richardson, who will feature these ancient forests in an upcoming digital art installation to be projected on IMAX screens across the country as part of an upcoming large-format film series.

Richardson is known for creating hyper-real digital films of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound. Her projects have received major international acclaim, having been featured in the National Gallery of Canada, in galleries around the world, in an official Canada 150 exhibition this year, and in the upcoming large-format film series.

Taking cues from 19th century painting, 20th century cinema and 21st century scientific inquiries, Richardson creates works with strong environmental themes, asking viewers to consider what the future might look like if we continue on our current trajectory of planetary pillaging and consumption, and why we have allowed ourselves to arrive at such a moment of global environmental crisis.

Kelly Richardson said: “Having lived and worked in England for the last 14 years, I recently relocated to Victoria in order to be closer to the truly magnificent old-growth forests. After visiting Avatar Grove during a work trip in the fall of 2016, I was overwhelmed by my experience of those ancient stands, which was a huge influence in my decision to apply for a professorship at the University of Victoria where I now work. My upcoming projects will feature the old-growth forests in this region and I hope I can contribute to efforts to raise awareness about their outstanding beauty and the plight to protect what remains.”

Over the years, Vancouver Island’s old-growth forests have drawn considerable attention from the artistic community, including Emily Carr who produced pieces depicting the old-growth trees, giant stumps, and forests of the region (whose works in regards to her interest in ancient forests is currently on display in the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

) in the first half of the 20th century; scores of renowned artists who contributed to the best-selling art book “Carmanah: Visions of an Ancient Forest” (300,000 copies sold) in 1990; and increasing numbers of artists and filmmakers in recent years featuring the ancient forests around Port Renfrew, including Richardson.

“We’re excited to have such a renowned and original artist of Kelly Richardson’s caliber, focusing her talent to draw international attention through creativity to the endangered old-growth forests of Vancouver Island. Her work has gone far and wide across North America, Europe, and China, garnering major media attention, moving critics and reaching popular audiences, all while raising environmental themes in powerful ways”, stated Ken Wu, executive director of the Ancient Forest Alliance. “The old-growth forests around Port Renfrew – still largely endangered – are clearly continuing to impress increasing numbers of people – not only tourists, businesses, and news media, but acclaimed artists as well.”

Born in Canada, Kelly Richardson’s works have been widely acclaimed in North America, Asia and Europe, having been acquired by the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in Canada and by museums around the world. Her video installations have been included in the Toronto International Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and she was previously honoured at the Americans for the Arts National Arts Awards alongside Robert Redford, Salman Rushdie and fellow artist, Ed Ruscha. Her forthcoming work focusing on British Columbia’s old-growth forests will be featured in the upcoming XL-Outer Worlds Project, an exposition of five new large format films by five digital media artists, including Richardson, that will help highlight Canada’s invention of IMAX film technology, to be screened across the country in IMAX theatres in 2019.

Located only 20 minutes from Port Renfrew, the Avatar Grove or “T’l’oqwxwat” in the language of the local Pacheedaht First Nation, is home to one of the most spectacular and easily accessible stands of monumental old-growth trees in BC. It has become among the province’s most popular old-growth tourism destinations, attracting visitors from around the world (particularly with the completion of a boardwalk last August), the attention of countless national and international news media organisations, and a major investment in new businesses in the region.

The campaign to protect the grove, spearheaded by the Ancient Forest Alliance and the Port Renfrew Chamber of Commerce – a ground-breaking alliance of environmental activists and the local business community – has significantly fuelled a provincial movement of businesses, labour unions, city and town councils, and environmental groups calling on the British Columbian provincial government to protect old-growth forests and to ensure a sustainable, second-growth forest industry.

More BACKGROUND Information on artist Kelly Richardson

Kelly Richardson’s work has been acquired into significant museum collections across Canada, the UK, and the USA including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (USA), Albright-Knox Art Gallery (USA), Arts Council Collection (England), among others. Recent one person exhibitions include Dundee Contemporary Arts, SMoCA, CAG Vancouver, VOID Derry, Naturhistorisches Museum Wien and a major survey at the Albright-Knox. Her work was selected for the Canadian, Beijing, Busan, Gwangju and Montréal biennales, and major moving image exhibitions including the The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality and the Moving Image at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Toronto International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival.

Kelly Richardson was born in Burlington, Ontario, Canada. From 2003-2017 she resided in north east England where she was a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Newcastle University. She currently lives and works as a visitor on the traditional territory of the WSANEC peoples of the Coast Salish Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. She is Associate Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. See her website at https://kellyrichardson.net

More BACKGROUND Information on BC’s Old-Growth Forests

Old-growth forests are vital to sustaining unique endangered species, climate stability, tourism, clean water, wild salmon, and the cultures of many First Nations. On BC’s southern coast, satellite photos show that at least 75% of the original, productive old-growth forests have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow. Only about 8% of Vancouver Island’s original, productive old-growth forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas (see maps and stats at: https://staging.ancientforestalliance.org/ancient-forests/before-after-old-growth-maps/). Old-growth forests – with trees that can be 2000 years old – are a non-renewable resource under BC’s system of forestry, where second-growth forests are re-logged every 50 to 100 years, never to become old-growth again.

In recent times, the voices for old-growth protection have been quickly expanding, including numerous Chambers of Commerce, mayors and city councils, forestry unions, conservation groups, and First Nations across BC who have been calling on the provincial government to expand protection for BC’s remaining old-growth forests. The Ancient Forest Alliance is also calling on the province to support First Nations land use plans and the sustainable economic development and diversification of the communities as an alternative to old-growth logging. See a recent news article at: https://www.sookenewsmirror.com/news/groups-demand-protection-of-islands-old-growth-forests/

About the XL-Outer Worlds Project

Janine Marchessault of the Public Access Collective and Christian Kroitor (grandson of IMAX inventor Roman Kroitor) of True Frame Productions have come together to commission five new large-format digital film shorts in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the invention of IMAX. The theme for the commissioned program is in keeping with the cinematic genre typical of IMAX films: the larger-than-life landscape that forms an outer world. Participating Canadian media artists include: Oliver Husain, Lisa Jackson, Kelly Richardson, Michael Snow, and Leila Sujir. XL-Outer Worlds will result in a four-day Festival Celebration in 2019 at the Cinesphere, the world’s first permanent IMAX movie theatre located in Toronto at Ontario Place. This festival will showcase the commissioned films celebrating the invention of IMAX, alongside curated programs of early IMAX films. The XL-Outer Worlds festival will later tour the first IMAX cinemas across Canada in Victoria, Sudbury, Edmonton and Montreal. This is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

Talking Points for Meetings with Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs)

Jan 1 2018/in Take Action

Your MLA may or may not be well-informed on the need to protect endangered old-growth forests and to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry jobs. When meeting them, share your concerns, outline the basic information we’ve provided, and try to convince them to take a favourable stance if they haven’t already. You should also be prepared to discuss some key issues of concern your MLA is likely to point out. Below are some topics your MLA might bring up and how you can address them.

Topic 1: Protecting old-growth forests could have a negative effect on forestry jobs and the economy.

Response: Most of BC’s forests are now second-growth, with old-growth forests making up only a minority fraction of the land-base. If the BC government promoted policies, such as ending the export of raw, unprocessed logs to foreign mills and implementing tax breaks for new investments in machinery to process second-growth logs into lumber or higher-end, value-added products, the total number of forestry jobs in BC could be sustained and even increased while we quickly phase-out old-growth logging. We need to get more jobs out of every second-growth log that we cut, while protecting the last old-growth stands.

Topic 2: Protecting old-growth forests from logging must align with the interests and aspirations of BC’s First Nations communities.

Response: Because of the policies of the previous BC Liberal government, many BC First Nations communities now rely on old-growth logging in their traditional territories for some of their revenues and employment. Unfortunately, they also lack a range of alternative, sustainable economic opportunities that would allow them to sustain employment of band members and generate revenues if they were to protect the old-growth forests in their territories should they wish to. Therefore, the BC government should provide financial support for First Nations economic development and diversification – just like the previous government did in the Great Bear Rainforest – to support First Nations’ economic development in enterprises like eco- and cultural tourism, renewable energy development, and sustainable seafood harvesting, while protecting endangered old-growth forests.

Topic 3: Old-growth forests are not endangered. According to BC government statistics, 40% of BC’s forests are considered old-growth.

Response: Not all forests are the same – some are comprised of big trees, while others are comprised of small, stunted trees with little to no commercial value. However, the BC government’s old-growth statistics fail to distinguish between these different forest types. After a century of commercial logging, most of BC’s remaining old-growth forests are low-productivity forests growing on steep slopes with thin soils at high elevations or in water-saturated bogs where trees grow small and poorly. There is only a small fraction of original, moderate- to high-productivity old-growth forest left in BC – that which has moderate to high commercial value. These are the forests that are endangered.

According to Ministry of Forests data, 80% of the productive old-growth forests on BC’s southern coast have been logged, including well over 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow, while only about 8% of the productive forests are protected in parks and Old-Growth Management Areas.

Topic 4: The BC NDP government will protect forests by investing in wildfire resiliency and recovery, modernizing land use planning, and keeping more logs in BC for processing.

Response: These measures do not adequately address the urgent need to curtail and end the large-scale logging of old-growth forests. Most of BC’s original, productive old-growth forests have been logged and there is now very little left. We need bold, decisive action and major policy changes in order to protect what remains. We need a science-based, legislated plan to protect old-growth; funding for First Nations sustainable economic development; immediate action to protect old-growth hotspots; a ban on old-growth raw log exports; incentives and regulations to ensure a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry; and finally, a land acquisition fund to purchase and protect old-growth forests on private land.

Topic 5: BC already has a system in place to protect old-growth forests in parks, Old-Growth Management Areas, and for species at risk like the Marbled Murrelet and Northern Goshawk. How is what you are proposing any different?

Response: BC’s existing system for protecting old-growth forests is not based on science and therefore protects a much smaller amount of old-growth than would otherwise occur. The current system does not mandate that the amount of old-growth to be protected, or “targets”, be based on any significant or comprehensive scientific assessments, does not distinguish between forest productivity classes (e.g. a stunted bog forest versus a monumental grove with giant trees) in those targets, and also allows the removal and “trade” of Old-Growth Management Areas (OGMAs) for logging purposes. In addition, these OGMAs, which once protected high productivity old-growth forests, are typically “traded” for lower productivity sites. The protection of more old-growth habitat for endangered species such as the Marbled Murrelet and Northern Goshawk, while greatly welcome and needed, will still result in most of the remaining endangered stands being logged if not accompanied by a comprehensive law to protect endangered old-growth forests, which themselves are only a small fraction of what once stood.

Thank You to All Supporters of the Ancient Forest Alliance!

Jan 1 2018/in Thank You

Thanks to our 2017 Donors!

The Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) was thrilled to grow our support base in 2017 to include a diversity of local businesses, artists, and organizations. The support and generosity of these businesses and individuals has been fundamental in our work to protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests and ensure a sustainable second-growth forest industry.

We are incredibly grateful to receive major support from Patagonia through their environmental grants program and to Valhalla Pure Outfitters in Nanaimo and Robinson’s Outdoor Store for awarding the AFA with conservation grants through Patagonia’s wholesale grants program. The Patagonia Vancouver and Patagonia Elements Victoria stores also offered their space on multiple occasions to host film nights and tabling events, with ticket sales proceeds going toward AFA campaigns.

Thank you to Robinson’s Outdoor Store in Victoria for hosting an amazing benefit night for the AFA with support from Patagonia, beer provided by Spinnakers, and the Giant Tree Hunters documentary provided by Nootka Street Film. We would also like to thank Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) for generously contributing funds, in-kind gifts, and store-front space to host our booth events in both the Lower Mainland and Victoria.

A big thanks again this year to ROOT Victoria for generously donating the proceeds from their opening dinner at the ROOT festival, and to Creatively United for hosting our canvassers and inviting our campaigners to speak at their Earth Day event.

Tribe Red Leaf Studios designed a special batch of AFA branded t-shirts, which they gifted to our staff and sold to earn funds for our campaigns. They also donate generously as monthly contributors!

Many thanks to Staekka Brand Goods and Apparel for supporting the Ancient Forest Alliance for a second year in a row, to Singing Bowl Granola for donating $1 per sale to the AFA during a special online promotion, to Fathom Stone Art for committing 1% of their proceeds from art sales toward protecting ancient forests, to Land & Sea West Coast Apparel for donating a portion of their annual sales toward our campaigns, and to the Ric Perron Community Film night for collecting donations for the AFA (queries: ricperron@shaw.ca).

We are grateful to Elastic Email for generously supporting us on a monthly basis; to Wild Coast Perfumery, Bough & Antler Northwest Goods, MacIsaac & MacIsaac, and Vicorp Services for their donations; and to Eternal Abundance Organic Vegan Grocery & Cafe and Banyen Books for supporting our campaigns by retailing AFA merchandise in their store-fronts.

Tall Tree Music Festival once again lent its support this summer to protect old-growth forests near Port Renfrew and beyond. Many thanks to the organizers for your hard work!

The AFA also received in-kind support from a variety of businesses and organizations during our 2017 year-end celebration and fundraiser. We would like to thank Patagonia Victoria, â€¯Robinson’s Outdoor Store,â€¯MEC,â€¯Lumina Yoga & Wellness,â€¯Land & Sea West Coast Apparel,â€¯Emma Glover Designs,â€¯Expedition Old Growth,â€¯Olive the Senses,â€¯Harmony Bellydance Co.,â€¯Butchart Gardens,â€¯Spinnakers Gastro Brewpub,â€¯Pelican Products,â€¯WindBlossom Massage,â€¯Il Terrazzo Ristorante,â€¯Café Brio,â€¯Phillips Brewery,â€¯ Mysore Victoria,â€¯Hemp & Co.,â€¯Moksha Yoga Victoria,â€¯Heart and Hands Health Collective,â€¯Port Renfrew Marina and RV Park,â€¯Bahnmann Timber,â€¯The Land Conservancy,â€¯LUSH Cosmetics Victoria, theâ€¯ UVic Ancient Forest Committee,â€¯Dr. Andrea Whelanâ€¯at Hawthorne Naturopathic Centre, The Market on Yates, Red Barn Market, â€¯Bon Macaron Patisserieâ€¯, artistsâ€¯Paul Beique, â€¯Keuque Method, andâ€¯Logan Ford; musician Oliver Swain, DJs C-Frets, Rich Nines, and Taquito Jalepeno, as well as Social Coast and all our volunteers for helping to make the event a major success!

We are most grateful for the generous support we receive from businesses, organizations, and artists throughout Victoria, the Lower Mainland, and beyond. Your donations, talents, and creative fundraising efforts are appreciated.

Thank you for choosing to support the AFA!

Ken Wu, TJ Watt, Andrea Inness, Joan Varley, Amanda Evans, Tiara Dhenin, Kent MacWilliam
Ancient Forest Alliance