D’Arcy Wilson reads her creative text “Dismantling the Meadow” that opens with 19th century history of The Language of Flowers, the text being published in the accompanying catalogue to The Wildflower, Hafnarborg’s 2020 autumn exhibition. Questioning the meaning, sentiment and culture that Western thought assigns to plants and flora, she wanders through The Wildflower, stopping to notice and attempt translation of each individual work and artist. Her research, memories and personal experiences lead her to plots of suburban landscaping and tangles of wilderness where the rhododendron and its wild cousin, the rhodora, grow in her home on the east coast of Canada.
D’Arcy Wilson is an interdisciplinary artist whose work considers the representation of nature in a Western context, lamenting colonial interactions with the wilderness. Her work has been presented across Canada, most recently at Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax, The Rooms Art Gallery, St. John’s, and the Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, as well as a part of M:ST, Flotilla, and the Bonavista Biennale. She is the recipient of several awards, including a Sobey Art Award earlier this year. Wilson graduated with an MFA from the University of Calgary in 2008. She is currently Assistant Professor in the Visual Arts Program on the Grenfell Campus, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
The Wildflower is a group exhibition of works by artists based in Iceland and Canada, curated by Becky Forsythe and Penelope Smart. The exhibition catalogue, in which D’Arcy’s text is published, is available in Hafnarborg’s museum shop. The exhibition will stand until November 8th, being temporarily closed to guests out of concern for public health.