The Listener

Liljana Mead Martin
Salt Spring Island, BC

The Matt Steffich Jurors' Choice Award

Size

41.5″ x 16.25 x 8″

Medium

Charred wood, polyurethane, brass, glass beads

“The Listener” draws upon subjects in ecology and speculative fiction to synthesize a carnivorous plant with a deep listener. The work consists of a tree trunk: although charred by fire, it acts as a nurse log for new growths and small sculptures cast from the artist’s ear. Blue-green fluorescent petals sprout forth from brass stems, and glass bead droplets spill out of the growths to replicate perspiring nectar. Through magical realism, “The Listener” speculates on our current environmental conditions and the potential for learned exchanges with other forms of life.

The Matt Steffich Jurors' Choice Award

The Listener

Liljana Mead Martin
Salt Spring Island, BC

About the artist
About the artist

Liljana Mead Martin
Salt Spring Island, BC

Liljana Mead Martin is a visual artist based between Salt Spring Island and New York. Her art practice uses geologic, organic, and synthetic materials to show the reciprocal exchanges and impacts between ecologies and culture.

Martin holds a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design and an MFA from Emily Carr University of Art & Design. She has participated in juried residencies, including the Banff Centre (Banff, AB), the Klondike Institute for Arts and Culture (Dawson City, YT), and Artscape Gibraltar Point (Toronto Island, ON). In 2021 her solo exhibition Geophilia opened with Wil Aballe Art Projects in Vancouver.

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