Paul Chartrand
Paul engages with environmental issues through the construction of sculptural life support apparatuses populated with living plants. He repurposes objects and cultural signifiers like language to act as habitats and conceptual support systems. Doing this subverts and re-contextualizes them as players in functioning ecosystems. Currently he is focused on living text installations, hydroponic assemblages and interdisciplinary drawing practices. The plants and other natural elements that Paul involves all have agency of their own; manifested through their power to change the appearance and effect of the work. Often the projects are dispersed through viewer participation that includes planting, conserving, reading and physical consumption. By working with plants, it is Paul’s intention to meaningfully engage with their agency as well as their relationships with humans past, present and future.
Desiccated Root Text (and other works), 2021
