The University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Cree, Ojibwe-Cree, Dakota, and Dene peoples, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. More
Artist Name: Sydney Millett
Title: Natures Essence: between evolution and decay
Medium: Forage natural materials, digital painting and photography
Size/Dimension: 25 seconds
Year: 2020
Artist Statement:
This piece was influenced by Jane Bennet’s essay “The Force of Things,” where she
introduces “thing power,” an idea that “life [is] less a thing and more of a happening
process.” I wanted to communicate a sense of aliveness that transcends the
constant changing of forms. Even though natural materials/bodies are changing
and decaying over time, a sense of aliveness is communicated through heartbeats and
breath — two constants that I reference through the fading technique of changing
images during the video.
Also taking note from Donna Harraway’s compost-mindset, the video invites us to
recognize how we are in the same rhythms of nature and are also evolving and
decaying constantly — and that the most real sense of aliveness is found in the process
itself, not the materials.