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Richard Brittain
I am an artist working and living in Vancouver, BC, on the unceded territories of the Squamish, Musqueam and Tsleil-Waututh nations. I was born in the Northern part of what is currently called British Columbia and spent my teenage years on Vancouver Island. I hold a Batchelor of Fine Arts from Emily Carr University of Art + Design with a focus on print media, although I am also interested in collage, illustration, sculpture and sound.
Artist Biography
A primary focus of my practice is exploring the complex and often fraught relationship we, as a species, have with the Earth. I find inspiration in the shapes, textures and patterns that exist within nature. Drawing on these, I seek to imagine new narratives in which humans embrace our place as part of the natural world, just as the natural world is an integral part of ourselves.
The tension between past, present and future is also integral to my work. While looking to the past for inspiration, I am focused on the challenges we face in the present, as well as our uncertain future. I draw upon surreal and fantastical imagery to explore issues we must address collectively as a species if we hope to survive. Organic forms merge, mutate, transform, and evolve in my work, as I explore what it is to be human in the Anthropocene and what the world might look like if we were at peace with our environment.
Artist Statement
Ashplant is a diptych inspired by the difficulties I have encountered navigating the dual challenges created by my mobility issues as well as Covid 19. The pandemic has made the complex relationship I have with my cane even more complicated. While my cane allows me to access the green spaces in the city that I rely upon for my physical and mental health, as my disability has become more visible to others I have found that it also defines the way I am seen and how people respond to me. I used the process of making Ashplant (the title taken from the word used by James Joyce for a walking stick) to explore the conflicting feelings I have towards my cane and the difficulties of having reduced mobility in a time where the movement of the population at large is being restricted.
