MEGHAN HILDEBRAND | MEGALOPOLIS

February 5 – March 14, 2004

Artist’s Talk & Opening Reception Thursday February 5, 7pm

Artist’s Statement

Webster’s dictionary defines “megalopolis” as a vast, continuously urban area, including any number of cities. My intention with this installation was to create a visual megalopolis, a continuous panorama comprised of many regions — urban, rural, and industrial.

This landscape is modeled after the real thing, inspired by the industrial parks of Southern British Columbia, new and established mineral and oil exploration, and the journey clear across Canada. Fueled by greed, it is a constantly accelerating machine fed with natural resources, translated in colour and pattern, it chugs, radiates and pollutes as it forms a complex, all-encompassing pattern of earth, machine, and sky.

Artist’s Bio

Grown in Whitehorse, I relocated to Nelson, BC in 1997 to attend the Kootenay School of the Arts. After a year-long stint at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax, I returned to Nelson and graduated from KSA’s mixed media program. Since 2001, I’ve been making art full-time.

My paintings have been largely industrial in scope, despite having lived in a number of beautiful natural settings. The explanation for this discrepancy is a combination of fear for the future and a sincere fascination at the construction and the very existence of these colossal man-made monuments to industry.