Heritage

Outdoor installation for Geopoetics exhibition at Stewart Hall Gallery in Pointe-Claire Quebec. Curated by Kasia Basta. June11 to October 15, 2017. HERITAGE is a new sculpture is made of laser cut wood that depicts a map of the rivers and lakes of Canada. During the day the 3 dimensional letters on the shores of Lac Saint-Louis proclaim that water is our heritage in Canada. Through these vein-like water currants from sea to sea, humans and plant life are sustained. At night, the context of water conservation fades into a subdued reading, where the map now back lit, offers a more …

A Dressing the Future Exhibition

New Exhibition and Art Residency  “A Dressing the Future” Lycoming College Art Gallery Williamsport, Pennsylvania, USA September 11 to October 10, 2015 WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – The Lycoming College Art Gallery will host Nicole Dextras’ “A-Dressing the Future” exhibit from Friday, Sept. 11 to Saturday, Oct. 10. A reception and gallery talk will be held and Sept. 25 at 25 W. Fourth Street, Williamsport from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. These events are free and open to the public. In addition to having Dextras’ exhibit on display in the Lycoming College Art Gallery, she will also be an artist-in-residence at Lycoming College from …

A Dressing the Future

A Dressing the Future is a new series which integrates my artwork into a magazine format. The first of this series is called Jardin Culture and the first issue is “HortiCulture”. The editorial format of a magazine allows me to present themes in my work that raise awareness about socio-political and environmental issues. This magazine is placed in a dystopian future and I have created pseudonyms for the various aspects of my work. Dexter Nicholson is the editor and contributors include: Jean-Xavier Destroches- photographer, Nicole Vivian D’Extras- fashion designer and Élocin Sartxed-  sculptor. In mr. Nicholson’s inaugural editorial Art and Dystopia Today he writes: …

Mobile Garden in Paris

The Mobile Garden Dress was invited to the Paris Garden Show, Jardins Jardin in June 2015. It is located beside the Louvre in the Tuileries Gardens in the heart of the city. The dress was presented by Val ‘hor, the French association of horticulture, floristry and landscape, who was running a national contest to get young people interested in plants. During the 4 day show the dress roamed the site inviting the public to identify some of the plants in her dress, which were common herbs and flowers. Dubbed Le Jardin Embulant, Parisians of al ages embraced the theatricality and style of the colourful …

Urban Botanicals

The Urban Botanicals Project is an outdoor installation consisting of botanical name identifiers for plants that are no longer growing in the area due to urbanization. The names of the original native plants are interspersed within the imported classical Chinese plants in the Dr Sun Yat-Sen Park. Cut from leaves and attached to bamboo stakes, they spell out the names of plants of the region, acknowledging the original landscape that the downtown east side and the city of Vancouver were built upon. For example, the Coastal Western Hemlock Zone of Vancouver’s land surface was once “covered with some of the …

Queens in the Desert

I spent the last 3 weeks of my art residency at Cal State Fullerton creating new pieces at the Fullerton Arboretum. It was a fantastic experience for me because Chris Barnhill, Director of the Living Collections let me pick a large variety of plant material from their extensive botanical garden, tucked away on 26 acres within the university campus. It was my first time experimenting with tropical plants such as Palm trees and Citrus peels and i could have spent months there experimenting with new materials. I built 3 dresses based on the Little Green Dress Project, which were worn …

Ego Eco, environmental art for collective consciousness

The Ego Eco, environmental art for collective consciousness exhibition was curated by Allison Town and Emily Tyler for the Begovich Gallery at California State University Fullerton, which featured to work of 13 artists. I participated on a variety of levels during my 5 week residency there. During the first 2 weeks i completed the Traveling SeedBomb dress and assembled the Urban Foragers series and staged a public intervention which was filmed and shown along side the Traveling SeedBomb dress in the gallery. The 3 Urban Foragers were at the opening reception and i was also on hand to talk about …

Urban Forages, a communal meal

The Urban Foragers got together for the first time as a group to share a communal meal made from the food sources they each carry in their self sufficient dresses. The Mobile Garden Dress, aka Madame Jardin, The Nomadik Harvest Dress, aka Miss Cornucopia and the new kid on the block, The Traveling SeedBomb Dress, aka Agent SeedBomb got together at California State University Fullerton for the Ego Eco exhibition at the Begovich Gallery. The day began with the dresses walking around campus and interacting with students about sustainable food practices and also promoting the exhibiton. They then settled into …

Agent SeedBomb

Agent SeedBomb is the name of the character who wears the Traveling SeedBomb Dress; an eco agent-provocateur with good humour and style, advocating for self-sufficiency through food independence and sustainable practices. The dress houses 50 glass vials filled with enough seed to plant over an acre of vegetables, grains and herbs to feed a family for one year, which were purchased from the Sustainable Seed Company in California. In this role, Agent SeedBomb aims to inform viewers on the identification and preservation of seeds while also engaging the community in activities such as seed bomb making and sidewalk stenciling with grains. …

Traveling SeedBomb Dress, the making of

The Traveling SeedBomb Dress is the third instalment in the Urban Foragers series. Like its predecessors, the Mobile Garden Dress and the Nomadik Harvest Dress, it functions as a garment, a shelter and a food source. As this series is about self-sufficiency, each new piece refers to a nomadic structure and for this one i chose the teepee because the shape resembles a Pine cone.  I am fascinated by the ingenious ways that plants propagate their seeds and so i have tried to incorporate this into the design as much as possible. There are cone shaped pockets all around the edge, …

OC3 Challenge

I was invited by curator Emily Tyler to participate in the Orange County Great Park’s OC3 challenge exhibition with the installation of the Nomadik Harvest Dress. The theme for OC3 2013 is Sun Soil City  was to inspire discussion relating to important topics of energy, agriculture, and community.  Fourteen curators from prestigious Orange County institutions have been invited to transform a designated space in the Great Park Gallery.  The challenge was simple — create a unique environment within the allotted space showcasing the work of one artist utilizing recycled or reused materials. It was another road trip for the NHD as the yurt structure had …

StoreFront Video

I am happy to share with you a new short documentary about the StoreFront, objects of desire project at the Lansdowne Centre in Richmond BC by Michael Sider . This video captures the performance and audience engagement parts of the project as they occurred in the mall;  intersecting consumer culture and artistic interventions with gentle prodding and good humour. And of course the kids are so darned cute! Special thanks to Elisa Yon of the Richmond Public Art Program for supporting the creation of this video. Performers include, Nita Bowerman, Billy Marchenskie and myself. enjoy.