Barbara Goretzky: Diggers


Wed, Dec 1, 2021 to Sun, Jan 23, 2022 @ Moose Jaw Cultural Centre

Community: Moose Jaw Cultural Centre


Education Packages: DiggersEdGuide.pdf
Diggers.jpg
Barbara Goretzky, Bobcat, 12 x 16 x 4 inches, Clay and glazes, 2016.

Diggers showcases humankind’s obsession with altering our habitat for ease of mobility, pleasure, and comfort. Goretzky has a fascination with the heavy-duty equipment that was used in the transformation of Wascana Lake in Regina. The sheer size of the equipment and the magnitude of the project was impressive to the artist; the removal of 1.3 million cubic metres of mud, at a cost of $18 million, was an interesting concept. As a species, we have created machinery specially designed for executing construction tasks like earth moving operations. Although, we are transforming the earth for our own particular tastes, nature is ever present. Nature shows itself as a small plant pushing its way between the cracks in a sidewalk or a jack rabbit bolting across an asphalt parking lot. Nature is ever present and waiting to burst forth and reclaim the world. We walk a thin line with our obsession of transformation and conservation of the natural world which surrounds us. Goretzky hopes that the viewer leaves with a sense of their actions and how we end up reshaping the world.