EcoStation

Edmonton-born artist Brandon Blommaert created images for the new Ambleside Eco Station that feature Alberta’s beautifully diverse landscapes, which act as cinematic backdrops for Blommaert’s own particular brand of recycling. His work is a reflection of his personal interest and experience with post-consumer waste, and it allows us to re-imagine what it means to be a consumer, a recycler, and an Albertan lucky enough to live in a province so rich in natural beauty.

Blommaert himself has worked in a paper sorting plant, which gives him an interesting and personal perspective on the process of recycling. It was the stacks of paper and cardboard that inspired his thinking about the waste we produce and the imagination it takes to recycle and reuse. Blommaert also has a background in animation, which lends an aspect of film or a stop-action model to the photographs he has created.

The work itself consists of five images of typical Alberta landscapes: the Rocky Mountains, boreal forest, parkland, the Badlands and urban sprawl. The backgrounds are photographs, printed on large pieces of vinyl that cover significant sections of the exterior walls of the building. In these landscapes, Blommaert has digitally inserted monster-like creatures made from post-consumer waste. The artist collected trash he found on the street to create these sculptures, which is itself an ingenious way to recycle.

Blommaert’s creatures invite curiosity in these familiar settings. Their presence is ambiguous: Are they mutants, resulting from environmental pollution? Are they malevolent or friendly helpers?