Floe/Flow by Jimmy Manning, Devonian Pond, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON
Excerpt from the plaque:
Floe/Flow by Jimmy Manning: This installation by Kinngait-based Inuk artist Jimmy Manning elicits a sense of awe and of deep time, while ringing the global alarm. Conveying a palpable tension, his delicate and haunting photographs of Arctic icebergs fuse with the ancient Precambrian stones in Devonian Pond to generate a new space-a composite landscape reminding viewers of the natural world’s power and beauty, while warning of things to come.
For over forty years Manning has photographed the people, wildlife, and world around him. He considers icebergs to be natural sculptures-they come in so many shapes and sizes, and the grooves carved by melting streams of ancient ice create crevasses and shadows that capture the light in alluring and surprising ways. While an inspiration to many photographers, icebergs are also a litmus test for our rapidly heating planet. Manning’s photographs-adhered to the huge, two-billion-year-old boulders imported from the Canadian Shield and placed at the centre of a human-made pond in the middle of the metropolis-are striking reminders of the planet’s melting ice caps.
Inuit maintain a keen awareness of the world around them. This highly-developed sense of the land and water lends itself to a life of making striking and emotionally-laden art. Manning’s eye for light and composition, and his intimate knowledge of Arctic conditions, bring the natural frozen masses to life within a city of stone and metal.
Floe/Flow by Jimmy Manning, Devonian Pond, Toronto Metropolitan University, Toronto, ON
Excerpt from the plaque:
Floe/Flow by Jimmy Manning: This installation by Kinngait-based Inuk artist Jimmy Manning elicits a sense of awe and of deep time, while ringing the global alarm. Conveying a palpable tension, his delicate and haunting photographs of Arctic icebergs fuse with the ancient Precambrian stones in Devonian Pond to generate a new space-a composite landscape reminding viewers of the natural world’s power and beauty, while warning of things to come.
For over forty years Manning has photographed the people, wildlife, and world around him. He considers icebergs to be natural sculptures-they come in so many shapes and sizes, and the grooves carved by melting streams of ancient ice create crevasses and shadows that capture the light in alluring and surprising ways. While an inspiration to many photographers, icebergs are also a litmus test for our rapidly heating planet. Manning’s photographs-adhered to the huge, two-billion-year-old boulders imported from the Canadian Shield and placed at the centre of a human-made pond in the middle of the metropolis-are striking reminders of the planet’s melting ice caps.
Inuit maintain a keen awareness of the world around them. This highly-developed sense of the land and water lends itself to a life of making striking and emotionally-laden art. Manning’s eye for light and composition, and his intimate knowledge of Arctic conditions, bring the natural frozen masses to life within a city of stone and metal.