INFRA

source: cccaconcordiaca

Tonya Hart
Toronto, Canada

City skyscrapers obscure light and horizon while asphalt snuffs the earth grid by grid forming the routes to work and play. Cradled by concrete are the occasional slips of green, such as the parkette beside the Cloud Gardens. The scene takes place here.

Within the garden is a pack of wolves. Not real wolves, rather sculptures fabricated with resin and painted bright fluorescent colours. They stand poised and alert, forming a trinity of surveillance. The wolves glow. In fact, they are rendered according to their thermal imagery. Much like camouflage, infrared displays a pattern of hot and cool colors. That is, the wolves are represented as pure energy, which metaphorically refers to the wolves’ primal instinctive state.

Often wildlife discovered in human territories is met with fear and awe. They appear alien, other. Yet,like the wolves radiating in the scene, their thermal vitality is shared by all warm-blooded animals. Tonight, audiences have the opportunity to discover that they too are part of this play.

Tonya Hart’s art explores the means to represent our relationship with nature, especially toward other animals. A graduate of York University Bachelor of Fine Arts Honours program, and recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Emerging Artist grant 2010.