Excerpt of Codex Rundle (2020-2026) – Looping 8K video, 60″ x 144″ (installed in studio)
CODEX RUNDLE is an ecological portrait of Mount Rundle. It is a multi-panel film collage that draws its primary inspiration from the “codex”—an ancient form of manuscript that was used to catalog the world in encyclopedic detail. In some cases, these ancient scripts contain the only surviving information we have about extinct ecologies. In this spirit, CODEX RUNDLE is a visual letter to the future.
Situated in the Canadian Rockies between the towns of Banff and Canmore, Mount Rundle stands as an oasis of wilderness increasingly hemmed in by human activity and infrastructure. At its core, CODEX RUNDLE chronicles an immersion into nature and endeavors to reconcile the profound spiritual experience of spending time in the wilderness with the technological connectivity and information overload of contemporary day-to-day life.
The project merges the traditions of landscape painting with the scientific field research of a naturalist. It is a record of my encounters and experiences of exploring Mount Rundle from its jagged alpine ridges to the waterways of the valley floor. Rather than portraying landscape as a static, scenic vista, CODEX RUNDLE is a multifaceted impression of the land that includes the flora, fauna, geology, weather, atmospheric phenomena and soundscapes. The resulting art work is a tapestry woven from thousands of video clips that presents ‘landscape’ as a dynamic interconnected system.
Physically, the work manifests as an interactive “altarpiece” fashioned after Bosch’s renaissance masterwork ‘THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS’. The side panels of the triptych are hinged and open like cupboard doors. When the doors of CODEX RUNDLE are closed, viewers are presented with a 3D lenticular image of the Earth as viewed from outer space. Opening the panels initiates a “zoom” from the celestial to the terrestrial.
The project is structured on the daily rhythms caused by the rotation of the Earth. Incorporating astronomical cycles in my work is a way to tether the ground beneath our feet with the cosmos above our heads.
Ultimately, CODEX RUNDLE is a glimpse at the extraordinary ecology that we are an integral part of, while also serving as a poignant reminder of the finite nature of the land we call home.