Drawing on ecofeminist and new materialist perspectives, my small works explore our social and ecological relationship to land. Influenced by my Catholic upbringing as well as current global land disputes over religious and cultural identity, I think of these as "Missalettes," ongoing newsletters I send out into the world.
The layered paintings use botanical, mineral, and synthetic inks that challenge a myth of mastery and consider the possibility of material and plant sentience. Much of my work grows from embodied, multi-year research in my community garden allotment. Engaging in a conceptual mapping practice, and in contrast to land surveys that take a drone’s eye view, I sit on the ground amidst the more-than-human elements. Assuming synesthesia, I capture the sounds, smells, tastes, and feelings of the ecological landscape.
In addition to making ink from my dye garden, I collect garden fencing, netting, and detritus found on site and then process it through the etching press, making monoprints that create an indexed schemata. Combining paintings and prints, I consider the ways in which we have imposed control and power over the landscape, cutting it into plots and property and creating a constant tension between what’s natural and not natural. Through sewing, which is both a violent puncture and a reparative suture, I ponder our current time of climate crisis, of action and inaction, and of the ongoing beauty of our surroundings. As Robin Wall Kimmerer says, “Even a wounded world holds us.”
Click on images to enlarge and read the captions. Some works in this series are available for purchase through Anonymous Society Gallery. Or, contact me at btoczylowski (at) gmail.com for additional pricing.