Sham–Real Shadows
On Navigating the Anthropocene

Trevor Van den Eÿnden 
MAA, Emily Carr University of Art + Design

A thesis essay submitted in partial fulfillment of the 
requirements for the degree of

Masters of Applied Arts
in

Visual Arts

Emily Carr University of Art + Design 
2015 

 

© Trevor Van den Eÿnden, 2015



Trevor Van den Eijnden 



On Navigating the Anthropocene

Trevor Van den Eijnden 



Sham–Real Shadows
On Navigating the Anthropocene 



Abstract  |  i

Sham–Real Shadows

Abstract

I make intimate scale objects that encourage audience interaction through 
their mobile devices, or small to larger scale works utilizing phenomenological 
engagement with projections, or mirrors. My research is focused on the 
Anthropocene, our current human-influenced global geological epoch born of the 
Industrial Revolution. It is my hope that my passion for the ideas contained in this 
subject will have some resonance in the work, while the things I make and the 
experiences they permit can be understood as meditations, and salves for bleak 
subject matter. The works discussed herein do not lecture toward my personal 
thinking around the Anthropocene (we get the planet we make), rather they direct 
themselves toward suggestions of how nature is presented, understood and utilized 
in a human-dominated world, and what that does to how we understand our 
relationship vis-à-vis nature. I believe that these are symptom and source for the 
problems we currently face and will carry with us into the future. 

The works discussed in detail are Familiar Strangers, Sham–Real Shadows, and The 
Relics of the Anthropocene Temple. These works utilize human-made materials 
sourced from nature such as paper, MDF, light, and plastics, as well as contemporary 
technology such as lasers (an Anthropocene futuristic form of primitive fire). 
Frequent research sources, such as naturalist wallpaper, are chosen for their 
presentation of a commodified and rationalized Nature; a shadow of a shadow used 
as simulacrum to decorate interiors in a human world. The areas of inquiry focus on 
two streams with the attempt to answer the question, “are there ways to explore 
the ideological underpinnings and ramifications of the Anthropocene?” These two 
primary avenues of exploration are: 

• Nature–human dichotomies and ways of designing nature, presenting and thus 
knowing Nature as simulacrum re-presented in repetitive patterns and then used to 
decorate human space, and 

• Hyperobjects as Burkeian, and Kantian sublime presented as patterning of 
indeterminate space as meditations on, and signifiers of bleakness and hope, light 
and darkness destabilization and interconnectedness, time and the unknown 
knowing. 

These two outcomes are explored in detail with in this document, and have formed 
the basis of my current practice. 



ii  |  Table of contents

Sham–Real Shadows

Table of contents
Abstract  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . i
Table of contents  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  ii
List of images .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  iv
Acknowledgements  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . vii
Dedication .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . viii
Key terms   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  ix

Part I: Shooting through mirages from the past    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 01
Representations and ideology  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 02
Familiar Strangers                                                                                      03
Description .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 05
Materials and processes   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 05
On arriving at the final form .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 07
Where the project began .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 07
Subverting wallpapers   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 09
Authenticity and legitimacy .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 10
Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 12
The 23 intervals  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 19
Ideology, and thinking on nature .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 20
Evocative objects  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 21
Harm   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 24
Nature as un-re-presentable    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 24
Sham–Real Shadows                                                                                  25
Description .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
Inspiration  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 27
Similarity to other artworks .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 28
Shadowpaper .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 29
The overlaps  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 31
Mapping the past  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 33
The 23 intervals infographic   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 35

Part II: Pointing aimlessly with accuracy    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 37
On arrows, and thinking   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 38
Ways of knowing: nature, and us    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 39
Ways of knowing: Capitalocene  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 42
Ways of unknowing: are there any? .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 44



Table of contents  |  iii

Sham–Real Shadows

Part III: Shooting into illusions from the future .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 45
A little bit Anthroposcene    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 46
The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple                                                            47
Description .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 49
Materials .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 49
Inside The Temple                                                                                    49
Similarity to other artworks .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 52
What was in the shadows .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 56
On the purpose of art   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 57
Green modernism  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 58
The sublime   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 58
The future as not presentable, art as salve .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 61
Are there ways to explore?   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 62

Bibliography   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 63

Appendix A: Other images   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 67

Appendix B .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 72
Table 01  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 73

Appendix C .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 80
Additional documentation   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 81



iv  |  List of images

Sham–Real Shadows

List of images
Figure 01.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 04 
Adjacent page An audience member illuminates and traces the outer edges to cast 
“shadows of nature” from the chosen form that attempts to place “nature in a box”. 
Note: the closer a cell phone light is to the sculpture the more all encompassing 
the shadows cast become. Shown: Interval 09: life is an act of consumption, jupiter 
(working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 
10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

Figure 02    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 06
Under bright lights (such as a from a cell phone flash-light) the laser process is made 
evident—the burns show that these are things that have survived fire (metaphoric 
and literal). Shown: Interval 08: four years before, and 156 after the origins of the species 
and we’re still here (working title) Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, 
Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

Figure 03 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 08 
Lace-work designs, such as this, there are no corner supports thus making the form 
extremely prone to breaking and eventual collapse. This speaks to the delicateness 
of the human relationship with nature—careless and brash breaks it; earnestness and 
concern keeps it standing. Shown: Detail of Interval 09: life is an act of consumption, 
jupiter (working title) showing delicateness of form.
 
Figure 04    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 10
Sham–Real Shadows Exhibition, The GAM Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 23 January–21 
February 2015. Shown above left: Final display on C-shaped MDF ledges. Shown 
above right and left: Interval 13: a parliament of effective distances (working title).  
Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, on custom light fixture, with 
custom light bulb. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

Figure 05 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 12
Left: Untitled chinoserie design by Linon Batiste, circa 1785. Right: Les 
Metamorphoses d’Ovide by an unknown artist, 1785.

Figure 06    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  13 
Upper: Lucullus by Auguste Clésinger, 1855, with die cut overlay showing cut outs 
in both shape and halftone points. Dark areas represent the cuts out of the paper 
material. Middle: Process excerpt of four tone rendering in preparation for halftone 
die cut for Interval 08: four years before, and 156 after the origins of the species and 
we’re still here (working title) in Figure 02. Lower: Interval 08: four years before, and 156 
after the origins of the species and we’re still here (working title) on display at the GAM 
Gallery. Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, on custom light fixture, 
with custom light bulb. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.



List of images  |  v

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 07    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 14 
Left: Untitled wallpaper design by Owen Jones, 1855. Right: Die cut for Interval 07: 
that which is beautiful is never true (working title).

Figure 08   .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 15
Left: Die cut for Interval 09: life is an act of consumption, jupiter (working title). Right: 
Acanthus by William Morris, 1875.

Figure 09    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 16
Die cut for Interval 15: these will never be banana leaves (working title) showing original 
pattern along the four sides and new blended patterns for the top and bottom.

Figure 10    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  17
Die cut for Interval 22: the heat of the sun is you (working title), 2014.

Figure 11 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 18
Die cut for Interval 23: we are our own ghosts in a landscape of our own making 
(working title).

Figure 12 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 22
Audience members illumes the “box that failed”—in cutting this one the lasers cut 
too far and several birds were cleaved from the design. Here they are presented as 
breaks from the patterning, laying “dead” on the ground. Shown: Interval 22: the heat 
of the sun is you (working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, 
Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

Figure 13 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 23
Left: Audience members light up Interval 11: this is how we dance under waves you can 
not see (working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips 
screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014. Right: Audience members light up Interval 
20: the world does not die with us (working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, 
embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

Figure 14 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 26
Fragility remains as a consistent element as the interior design depends on only a 
few 0.3175 cm supports just as the little cube cousin depends on 0.15875 cm supports. 
Another important distinction is that the lighting for Sham-Real Shadows is provided, 
and integrated in its display. This permits a projection of shadows further outward 
so that the piece may fill an entire space with shadows, and light. Shown: Sham–Real 
Shadows. Laser-cut MDF, embroidery thread, custom light fixture, and you. 55.8 x 55.8 
x 55.8 cm. 2015. 

Figure 15 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 29 
Shadowpaper cast from Sham–Real Shadows.

Figure 16 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 30
Overlapping shadowpaper cast by Sham–Real Shadows and by other audience 
generated light sources. 



vi  |  List of images

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 17 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 34
The 23 intervals research info-graphic. 61 x 61 cm. 2015. (See Appendix A for a high-
resolution version).

Figure 18 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 48
Illustration showing The Anthropocene Temple including placement of The Relics, 
walls, curtain (denoted by dotted line), and light leaks. Note: The largest work, 
Sham–Real Shadows, is in the small place, while the smaller Relics are in the big space. 
This misplacement was calculated to craft a tension of scale that gives way to an 
open blackness with spots of brilliance. Shown: Layout of The Anthropocene Temple 
Exhibit: 1. Sham–Real Shadows, 2. Relic I, 3. Relic II, 4. Relic III, 5. Relic IV, 6. The Temple 
Prints (located on the walls), 7. Didactic panel.

Figure 19 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 50
Relic I: No esteemed deed; nothing of value here. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, 
wool, paper, 3D printed sculpture, fixture, LED light bulb. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.

Figure 20    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .  51
Sketch I have made of “landscape of repulsion” from a mock of a conceptual 
landscape of concrete thorns to warn future generations to steer clear of New 
Mexico’s Yucca Mountain radioactive wastes burial ground as commissioned by the 
U.S. Department of Energy sometime in the early 1970s. Sourced from WIT’s World 
Ecology Report - Vol. 04, No. 5—The Digest of Critical Environmental Information (WIT, 
1992, 12 pages)

Figure 21 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  53
Relic II: The wood between the worlds. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, paper, 
mirror, 3D printed sculpture, fixture, LED light bulb. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.

Figure 22 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 54
Relic III: Mine #000. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, paper, mirrored paper, 3D 
printed sculpture, string LED lights. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.

Figure 23 .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  55
Relic IV: Lawn (plasti–phoenicopteriphobia). 

Figure 24    .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   . 56
The Temple Prints. Black ink, black rag paper, black thumbtacks Dimensions vary. 
2015.



Acknowledgements  |  vii

Sham–Real Shadows

Acknowledgements

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the faculty of MAA program for 
their dedication and assistance, keen minds and support. Foremost among them I 
especially owe thanks to my advisor Fiona Bowie for her patience and willingness 
to encourage and push me to explore new materials and methods for making art as 
today I am producing work that is very much different from what I was making when 
I began this journey.

Besides my advisor I would also like to thank Kathleen Ritter and Simon Levin 
who provided keen insight and earnest support for the development of many 
new projects that worked in ways of making and thinking that I would have never 
considered otherwise. And I would also like to thank Dr. Chris Jones for taking a 
chance on me and offering his support. 
 
I would also like to thank the support staff at the Soft Shop’s Laser Output Centre 
who pushed the laser cutter to its edge of capabilities for me, as well as Angeles 
Hernandez Correa for her organization and assistance throughout the past two 
years. 

Finally I thank my cohort Christann Kennedy, Melany Nugent-Noble, Valérie 
Tremblay Blouin, Troy Gronsdahl, Dionne Paul, Galan Aitken, Jay Havens and Cadine 
Navarro for their generous support and honest critiques. 



viii  |  Dedication

Sham–Real Shadows

Dedication

To my partner Andrew and my four-legged companion Sherlock for their tireless, 
patience, love and support during this journey. Thank you, and “woof, woof”.



Key terms  |  ix

Sham–Real Shadows

Key terms

Anthropocene: Our current geological era born of the industrial revolution that 
is dated to 1784 to coincide with James Watt’s invention of the steam engine, 
and exacerbated after immediately after 1944 with the first atomic bombs and 
subsequently the Great Leap forward of the 1940s and ’50s.

Anthroposcene: There are two ways I define this neologism. Both definitions speak 
to “setting the stage” for the Anthropocene. 

1. A work of art (time-based, 3D, 2D or other) that when pulled out of its original 
context appears as something quite different than probably intended, specifically 
that it appears to speak too, relate with, predict, or present the Anthropocene.

1. A work of art (time-based, 3D, 2D or other) that specifically references the 
Anthropocene. 

Dystopia: A utopia that is negative relative to the global impact of the 
Anthropocene. 

Eutopia: A utopia that is positive relative to the global impact of the Anthropocene. 

Hyperobject: Another term coined by Timothy Morton referring to objects massively 
distributed throughout time and space relative to human life spans. Examples include 
polymers, nuclear waste, the oceans, Mount Krakatau, genetic DNA, the planet 
Earth, the Sun, and so on. 

The mesh: A theoretical mesh within which all things sit. This is a term coined by 
Timothy Morton that implies a theoretical mesh that exists as the interwoven fabric 
of (all) life and non-life. The word mesh carries with it a two dimensional visualization 
that should be set aside in order to fully understand it as an every expanding multi-
dimensional weaving of all that we currently do and do not know or understand. 
Therefore the mesh that Morton (and I) speaks of is 3D, multidimensional, and each 
piece is woven to every other piece. Something of this complexity lacks a sufficient 
word in the English language, but the Greek word ametros, meaning “unmeasured”, 
comes close. 

Nature: A generalized romantic or exploitative view of nature as usually found in a 
Nature–Human dichotomy. 

Nature: An open definition of nature that opens its scope by refusing to explicitly 
define it. This is a term that references a collapse of the Nature–Human dichotomy 
in preference of acknowledging our implication within the systems of the natural 
world, i.e. the before mentioned Mesh of all living and nonliving things that is 
obscured by the Fog of Anthropomorphism. 



x  |  Key terms

Sham–Real Shadows

Solvo desertum: Free-willed Nature; a form of wilderness predicated on Romantic 
notions of what nature should look and be like. Perhaps this, in outcome, is identical 
to voluntas desertum, but it is differentiated through its intent.

Strange stranger: Another term coined by Timothy Morton, this refers to the 
conceptual distance that is required in order to better understand and relate to the 
other life forms entangled in the Mesh and lost in the Fog.

Utopia: Defined henceforth as a “no-place” that could equally be eutopian or 
dystopian.

Voluntas desertum: Already and always free nature; an acknowledgement of 
an unknowable knowing of our enmeshment within nature through choice of 
acceptance of nature as is over a decision to purposely abandon any specific way of 
understanding and categorizing Nature. 
 



Part I: Shooting through mirages from the past  |  01

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Part I: Shooting through mirages from the past



Sham–Real Shadows

02  |  Representations and ideology 

Representations and ideology

“Ideology isn’t just in your head. It’s in the shape of a Coke bottle. 
It’s in the way some things appear ‘natural’—rolling hills and 
greenery—as if the Industrial Revolution never occurred.”
—Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought

The works discussed in Part I are enmeshed in past ways of knowing, representing, 
and burying nature behind façades of itself. These works point toward Aesop’s arrow 
as idealized replicas of nature aligned to our thinking about Nature, that are then 
made from materials sourced from its own destruction. 

Nature in the arts (and elsewhere) is a discombobulated concept that is tossed 
between and betwixt opposed and confused uses: basis, authority, genesis, 
metaphor, raw material, frontier, divine, sublime, evil, fear, and escape among many 
others. The found patterns employed in the work reference prevailing romanticized 
ideals of nature since the start of the Industrial Revolution. In turn those ideals limit 
our engagement with nature and our understanding of it as something that we are a 
part, not apart. The works discussed in Part I re-represent these ideals in new modes 
of presentation. 



Familiar Strangers   |  03

Sham–Real Shadows

Familiar Strangers



04  |  Familiar Strangers 

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 01: Adjacent page An audience member illuminates and traces the outer edges to cast “shadows of 
nature” from the chosen form that attempts to place “nature in a box”. Note: the closer a cell phone light 
is to the sculpture the more all encompassing the shadows cast become. Shown: Interval 09: life is an act 
of consumption, jupiter (working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 
10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014. 



Familiar Strangers  |  Description  |  Materials and processes  |  05

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Description
Familiar Strangers is a sculptural time lapse of iconic, award winning Western 
naturalist wallpaper designs since the onset of the Industrial Revolution (circa 1784), 
thus linking them directly to the start of the transition toward the Anthropocene 
proper1. These works are delicate, fragile, laser-cut cubes intendended as disruptions 
of their paper surfaces to re–present these patterns from nature. These works are 
then displayed to encourage audience interaction with their cell phones lights (Figure 
01) to investigate these re-presentations of nature in a familiar, yet strange form—as 
simulacrum as pattern. 
 

Materials and processes
As a material, paper is a foundational item in modern knowledge—the primary 
formats for the dissemination of information for over 800 years in the West, and 
nearly two thousand in China, yet it was not popularized in décor until the Industrial 
Revolution made mass printing possible2. Patterning our man-made environments 
has existed for millennia3 and today patterning dots our materialized landscapes, 
actively influencing thoughts, actions, and plans in active ways (modern urban street 
grids), passively (décor patterns such as wallpaper), and somewhere in between 
(concrete, gravel, asphalt and other built textures). Within all of these patterns, 
wallpaper is a passive daily reminder that nature can be turned into Nature; that it 
can be bent, controlled, and broken. Wallpaper, indirectly (as ideology via pattern) 
and directly (it is made from plants, and trees, dyes, chemicals, and glues) points to 
the destruction of nature for a solely human (such as the arts), as well as capitalist 
purposes. 

Laser–cutting as a process and material choice leaves behind trace evidence of a 
form of highly controlled fire alongside proof that these works survived it (Figure 
02). This is paramount to Familiar Strangers, for in a grand sense our Anthropocene 
journey, from the very beginning of human evolution to becoming the driving force 
of nature4 that we are today, began with our control of fire. Arguably it is the first 
thing to allow humans to separate from the rest of the natural world (our control 

1. The first machine–made wallpaper was crafted by the French “royal manufacturer” Christophe-Phillppe Oberkampf and dates to 1785
2. Wall hanging of cotton or silk have existed since at least the 1600s while other forms of patterned wallcoverings have existed for millenia.
3. The chevrons on the 700,000 year old Java Island pseudodon shell engravings are the oldest known “man–made” patterns—made by a human 
predecessor, homo erectus, and whose intent for the pattern is subject to some debate. (“Zigzags on a Shell From Java Are the Oldest Human 
Engravings”, 2014)
4. For example, the United Nations estimates that we now move more sediment globally and annually than all of the powers of erosion 
combined.



06  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Materials and processes

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 02: Under bright lights (such as a from a cell phone flash-light) the laser process is made evident—
the burns show that these are things that have survived fire (metaphoric and literal). Shown: Interval 08: 
four years before, and 156 after the origins of the species and we’re still here (working title) Laser-cut paper 
and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

 

over natural forces), and such a ubiquitous and deep-in-time hyperobject (we can 
not know how we came to know how to produce and control it) is an important 
reference as it suggests that, although not visible unless investigated closely, there 
is more to the work to consider than pattern alone. Laser is fire’s 20th century high–
technology update, rendering a process that encapsulates the deep past, the present, 
and the future—the perfect tool for the Anthropocene. The fire the laser produces 
is texture both literally, and metaphorically as the boxes display the evidence of 
burning to craft such fragility, but their shadows carry no such reference. 



Familiar Strangers  |  On arriving at the final form  |  Where the project began  |  07

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On arriving at the final form
Artist David Thomas Smith creates kaleidoscopic patterns from composited aerial 
photographs as a way to explore sites of global capitalism (“Imagery, Imagination, 
Earth”, 2013). Smith’s work is disturbing and beautiful, and quite literally shows the 
vast ways in which capitalism and human demand has patterned the earth’s terrain. I 
choose to work with commercial wallpaper because to me it represents a patterning 
of nature in a micro way that in turn primes us to accept the macro patterning that 
Smith spells out for us in his photography. Wallpaper, to me, demonstrates nature 
as simulacra; as a thing that is beautiful yet disturbing in how it flattens and bends 
that-which-is-not-us (Nature) into rational repeating shapes and forms. In an even 
deeper sense Familiar Strangers et al. is a response to the patterning of capitalism, 
and of green modernism that proposes management of the Earth as if it were a giant 
garden. In this scenario global capitalism decides the pattern, and ultimately what 
gets to grow and what (and whom) is weeded out. 

Like the connection between wallpaper patterning and ideological patterning, 
several key aesthetic decisions I made with Familiar Strangers depended on linguistic 
connections. These Familiar Strangers re–presents simulacra of nature inside cubes 
to speak to placing nature in a metaphoric and literal box. This is an answer to 
Timothy Morton’s ponderance that our failed Nature ideas “force organic forms into 
[ideological] boxes that cannot do them justice” (Morton, Ecology Without Nature, 
2007, 20), while the white cube shape is also a nod to the gallery space in which the 
work is disseminated. When explored with light the work casts shadows of pseudo–
nature that in its layers presents a shadow of a shadow of a shadow of nature. It is 
also important to note that the boxes are hollow because nothing truly natural exists 
inside an ideological box. 

Where the project began
I see the premising Familiar Strangers designs as “small acts of violence”5. They may 
not be large-scale clear cuts like one would find in an Edward Burtynsky photograph, 
but they are small subconscious actions that suggest and condition toward tolerance, 
and acceptance of violence against the natural world. With the idea of violence, and 
the material of paper, I began exploring the work of Thomas Demand, specifically 
his photographs of life-sized replicas of sites of social or political trauma. Familiar 
Strangers began by building intricate hand-cut replicas of the interior framing of 

5. Analogous to the term micro-aggressions. 



08  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Where the project began

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Figure 03: Lace-work designs, such as this, there are no corner supports thus making the form extremely 
prone to breaking and eventual collapse. This speaks to the delicateness of the human relationship with 
nature—careless and brash breaks it; earnestness and concern keeps it standing. Shown: Detail of Interval 
09: life is an act of consumption, jupiter (working title) showing delicateness of form.  

 

suburban homes that would be subjected to simulations of landscape burning, 
flooding, or glacier crushing to see what residue would be left to photograph. From 
these artifacts of trauma I crafted patterns, but this approach felt too focused on 
illustrating dystopia rather than thinking on patterning in literal, and ideological 
ways. With that observation I began to search for something more simple yet related 
to human dwellings. In this I kept coming back to wallpaper as simulacrum. For me 
these small cubes represent the possibility of a room somewhere (or anywhere) 
where these small acts of violence work on someone’s subconscious, or my own. 



Familiar Strangers  |  Subverting wallpapers  |  09

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Subverting wallpapers
Many Western patterns stem from adaption, and mixing of styles, more commonly 
taking the form of appropriation of non-Western cultures, such as Scottish re-
interpretations of 200–600 CE Persian Paisley patterns (“The History of the 
Paisley Symbol and Paisley Pattern”, 2014), or Dutch willow patterns based off of 
Chinese designs depicting pastoral scenes in blue, and white (Joseph Portanova, 
2013). CNTRLZAC designs dishware for Italian company Hyb|rid that juxtaposes 
original Middle Eastern or Asian designs with the European adaptation onto the 
same dish, bowl, or glass. It seems far too poignant that these are designed in Italy, 
manufactured in China, and sold in North America. I see these decorative crafts as 
Anthropocene products that explore the origins of patterns while pointing out that 
colonialism’s history with pattern didn’t end as its commercialized appropriation and 
exploitation continues today. 

Today, wallpapers are the focus of numerous artists. In Domestic Interventions 
(CityScape Community Art Space, North Vancouver, BC, 17 October–15 November 
2014) artist Janet Wang subverted Toile de Jouy—a less expensive, printed style of 
repetitive images of the idyllic (Azzarito, 2009)—by seeding typical pastoral scenes 
with the detritus of everyday Toronto including images of needles, used condoms, 
as well as its ignored, and underprivileged people.  The pattern was silkscreened by 
hand on fabric and used to craft a tent typical of persons without proper housing 
that survive in the parks, and streets of that city.  

Wang’s approach of subverting an old style to create her own take is poignant, but it 
is not a solution that felt right for this project as I desired to work with designs that 
were in someway approved by a capitalistic system inside a timeline, which would 
necessitate that they already exist. This meant that altering the designs beyond 
reducing them to solid and void, and blending them together to make the tops and 
bottoms of the cubes, couldn’t be done. If I alter the designs then they are more 
motif then historical proof, less re-presentation than opinion; and this doesn’t feel 
right. As a result I must struggle with the strong probability that the aestheticism 
of the final forms will be seen as reinforcing the ideological patterning that I seek 
to undermine with Familiar Strangers. This sets up a difficult tension where the 
earnestness of the designs to sign–post nature meets the ideological patterning 
pointing to Nature I see imbedded in them. Making my own patterns, or subverting 
historical ones are not a rejected way of working, but is something for another 
project. 

A more direct approach, artist Kristin Schoppi’s 1993 vegetable wallpaper installation 
at Access Gallery (see Appendix A, figures A-01, and A-02) made of real vegetables 
left to rot, takes the odious conceptual underpinning of naturalist wallpaper—
taming, and controlling nature—and lets it rot. What a stark way to speak to the 
rot in humanity’s relationship to nature as Nature. In this way the work becomes 
something much more visceral, that demands interaction without choice. I need 



10  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Authenticity and legitimacy

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 04: Sham–Real Shadows Exhibition, The GAM Gallery, Vancouver, BC, 23 January–21 February 
2015. Shown above left: Final display on C-shaped MDF ledges. Shown above right and left: Interval 13: 
a parliament of effective distances (working title).  Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, on 
custom light fixture, with custom light bulb. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014.

 

my work to do something of Schoppi’s in providing something more than just being 
pattern, therefore getting the wallpaper to be something else in a form that can lead 
to reader to a conclusion similar but not necessarily identical to my own is critical. 
This is why I think of these pieces as suggestions—they suggest thinking around 
nature and Nature but do not directly address it via their forms alone. 

Authenticity and legitimacy
As I did not want to subvert patterns, or make up my own historicist ones I set out 
to create a list of patterns that would have the authenticity of having been consumed 
inside a capitalist system. Likewise, legitimacy stems from designs that have in 



Familiar Strangers  |  Authenticity and legitimacy  |  11

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some way been sanctioned within their own discipline, specifically the design of 
wallpapers. 

The steps to selecting what source materials to work with are:
1. Use designs found within the publicly accessible library survey books6,
1. Craft a shortlist of naturalist wallpapers that connect visually to narrative breaks in 

Nature thinking,
1. Chose finalists for their contribution to that shifting narrative.

 
In this I am seeking an overall narrative within the context of capitalist hegemony, 
and the lead up to the Anthropocene. The individual designers7 are not a 
consideration. I am aware that these designers come from diverse backgrounds, and 
that many may be actively working in ways aligned or opposed to my own. This, 
however, is not the point of Familiar Strangers—the objective being to work with 
designs that are celebrated, or otherwise acknowledged within an industry that in 
turn promotes their usage as décor, thus filtering down into the everyday lives of 
people.

In Dr. Joanna Boehnert’s paper Design versus the Design Industry (2014) she argues 
that all fields of design fail at addressing our current global crisis because the 
design industry is beholden to capitalism’s pursuit of profit, which weeds out those 
works that do not support this. In her own words, “The exclusive focus on profit 
and quantitative economic growth results in distortions of knowledge, and reason 
thereby undermining prospects for the design of long-term prosperity within the 
context of the current political, and economic regime” (Joanna Boehnert, 2014, 1). 
Wallpaper is just one aspect of design, and can’t speak for a whole multifaceted 
set of distinct disciplines, but it is very much in bed with the same regimes that 
Dr. Boehnert speaks of. With this in mind the main objective of Familiar Strangers 
is to be critical of visual representation that supports impoverished thinking about 
nature within a broader Anthropocene and capitalist narrative—not to critique the 
intentions of the individual designers referenced here. If I accept Winston Churchill’s 
axiom, “we shape our [environments]; thereafter they shape us”, then the designers, 
artists, curators, and broader system absolutely have a role to play in this regime (or 
what follows it). I hope that I do as well.

6. Thus making this experiment not only replicable but also based on information within the accessible public record that anyone can gain 
access to without barriers. This first methodological step presents a major benefit in that it allows me to source designs selected by experts 
rather than through my personal taste, however, it also means depending on those experts. As it turns out the experts do not appear to be 
without bias as the overwhelming majority of naturalist designs in these books are Western. In fact until the later half of the 20th Century they 
are all predominately, and specifically, European.
7. I also do not wish to treat all of the designers the same, and through my research I have found some moments of earnestness that, in part, 
speak to my interests in nature, William Morris being one. Morris approached his designs earnestly in a hope that they spoke to natural things, 
but also to make clear to the viewer that they were not replicants, rather that they stood out as natural, and as designs in equal measure. They 
are Nature designs that through their non-Cartesian grids, and repetition speak to indeterminat (the repeats could go on indefinitely), nature, 
and an approach to design that could only be human.



12  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784 

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 05: Left: Untitled chinoserie design by Linon Batiste, circa 1785. Right: Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide 
by an unknown artist, 1785

 

Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784
Each design presents a locked-in-step shifting relationship with the natural world vis-
à-vis representations of it. At the onset of the Industrial Revolution papering one’s 
walls became a populist pursuit in the West. A popular contemporary design was the 
Versailles8 print that presented diagonal repeats of clusters of florals, branches, and 
birds often in highly stylized neoclassical forms.  Most, however, did not present a 
dramatic break with the past, often referencing neoclassical, or appropriated non-
Western styles such as chinoiseries9 (Teynac, 1982). As the Industrial Revolution 
progressed wallpapers speak more to contemporaneous Western thinking on Nature 

8. Named after the palace of the same name. 
9. A chinoiserie is any pattern derivative of classical Chinese designs.



Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784   |  13

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Figure 06: Upper: Lucullus by Auguste Clésinger, 1855, with die cut overlay showing cut outs in both shape 
and halftone points. Dark areas represent the cuts out of the paper material. Middle: Process excerpt of 
four tone rendering in preparation for halftone die cut for Interval 08: four years before, and 156 after the 
origins of the species and we’re still here (working title) in Figure 02. Lower: Interval 08: four years before, and 
156 after the origins of the species and we’re still here (working title) on display at the GAM Gallery. Laser-cut 
paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, on custom light fixture, with custom light bulb. 10.16 x 10.16 x 
10.16 cm. 2014.



14  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784 

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in relationship to The Age of Empires. Its at this time that wallpaper morphs into 
full scenic murals panoramically depicting landscapes in colonial or mythologized 
contexts, such as the hunting scenes as seen in Auguste Clésinger’s 1855 piece 
Lucullus (Figure 06) (Thibaut-Pomerantz, 2009). Many worked within the Romantic 
sublime tradition of foreboding landscapes seemingly void of people in “newly 
discovered” far off lands. These room-wrapping scenes provided any person of means 
the ability to dream of colonization while at the supper table.

By the mid 19th century this eventually progressed to tight repetitions of manicured 
plants as seen in Owen Jones’s 1850 untitled piece (Figure 07) (Greysmith, 1976). 
These diverged either into trompe l’oeil patterns or towards works that speak 
eloquently to heavily reconstituted organic forms. William Morris’ 1875 Acanthus 
(Figure 08) that explores the qualities of a single type of leaf is one example that 
captivates. Morris’ take on the acanthus plant (a classical motif) is earnest and 
visually pleasing, but it hardly compares to the actual plant that is more bristle 
than calculated French curve (Greysmith, 1976). For me both nature and human 
design, ultimately reading as a uniquely Morrisian attempt to signpost Natue over 

Figure 07: Left: Untitled wallpaper design by Owen Jones, 1855. Right: Die cut for Interval 07: that which is 
beautiful is never true (working title).

 



Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784   |  15

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nature. It is a failure as it ultimately points towards order, design, and pattern 
more clearly than its subject; and yet it is also a coup d’état in wallpaper design for 
its seamlessness, and kinetic energy. Somehow it seems simultaneously arbitrary 
and calculated; natural and man–made; organic and architectonic—a perfect 
Anthropocene pattern.

In the later half of the 19th century other wallpaper designs are clearly influenced 
by Morris as they begin to appear (as a general observation) more realistic while 
simultaneously becoming more machined in their patterned qualities. I think Morris, 
in particular, represents one of the best articulated aesthetic breaks from voluntas 
desertum, an “already, and always free nature,” in how his work acknowledges 
that it is simulacrum, in effect being an exercise in design (as a sign–post) first; 
representation (realism) second. In a way Morris’ work is less representation of nature 
and more design–for–design–sake’s that is based off of things that exist in nature. 

In the early 20th century approaches to wallpaper design shifted to celebrating not 
escaping the Industrial Revolution through machined appearances—a hallmark of 

Figure 08: Left: Die cut for Interval 09: life is an act of consumption, jupiter (working title). Right: Acanthus 
by William Morris, 1875. 

 



16  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784 

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 09: Die cut for Interval 15: these will never be banana leaves (working title) showing original pattern 
along the four sides and new blended patterns for the top and bottom.

 

many early modernist styles. These shifts coincide with the explosive growth of 
urban areas as well as newly accepted revelations about nature, such as definitive 
proof for the concept of extinction as found in the dramatic, and well-publicized 
demise of the American Passenger Pigeon (Forbush, 1917). The last of these pigeons 
died in captivity on 01 September 1914 thus signally the annihilation of an animal 
nicknamed “a living wind”10 that once blacked out the daylight skies of North 
America for hours in flocks 300 kilometres long (Mackinnon, 2013, 54). This came as 
a deep shock to the public, dominated headlines, inspired works of art, and was a 
major impetus behind the growth of conservation movements in the United States 
(“Why the Passenger Pigeon Went Extinct”). 

It is also around this point onwards that I’ve observed that all of the lauded designs 

10. The description of the flocks can be attributed to Aldo Leopold’s 1947 poem On a Monument to the Pigeon where he wrote “Men still live 
who, in their youth, remember pigeons; trees still live who, in their youth, were shaken by a living wind. But a few decades hence only the 
oldest oaks will remember, and at long last only the hills will know.” (‘Why the Passenger Pigeon Went Extinct’)



Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784   |  17

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depart from any attempt at realism, rather focusing on machined repetition of nature 
as (re)source. A popular, yet anonymous design of the Art Déco eara, for example, 
features repeat of banana leaves so machined as to barely be recogizable as leaves 
at all11 (Figure 09). The mid-twentieth century continued this trend of eviscerating 
nature for more man-made aesthetics through cartoonish depictions adhering more 
to style, thus doing away with attempts at a true enmeshing with nature. Perhaps 
in an era of atomic blasts rejecting the natural for the over the top pop art12 or 
midcentury modern abstractions felt more appropriate. 

During the ’70s Alain Le Foll created a distinctive instance of naturalism through a 
wallpaper design titled The Cliff (Figure 13) that translates a single cliff face into a 

11. This pattern will sometime appear as titled as Manhatten but there is no evidence to suggest that this was its original title. In my discussion 
around the work I refer to the pattern as banana leaves because those were a popular motif at the time to which this design adheres. This is 
the only pattern in the Familiar Strangers series that I can not attest with 100% certainty that it is a nature derived pattern, but I am convinced 
beyond the shadow of any doubt.
12. I’m especially thinking of Yayoi Kusama’s pop art flowers here.

Figure 10: Die cut for Interval 22: the heat of the sun is you (working title), 2014.
 



18  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Naturalist wallpaper designs since circa 1784 

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floor to ceiling mural-sized panorama13. Despite this high point, overall in the last 
third of the 20th century naturalism appears to wane in popularity (Greysmith, 1976). 
Of those that I found most are overly derivative of earlier periods and thus present a 
romantic historicism over any new shift in nature–human thinking. 

Finally, in the twenty-first century nature patterns return but abruptly abandon 
the false promise of presenting a romantic Nature and instead present animals as 
vestigial parts of the urban landscape (Figure 10) or even worse: as resource for 
genetic and human manipulation (Figure 11) (Blackley, 2006). Perhaps these designs 
are meant to be ironic, but even so my aversion to them persists. 

13. This is also the only naturalist wallpaper design to focus on mineral rather than flora or fauna that I have located at the time of publication.

Figure 11: Die cut for Interval 23: we are our own ghosts in a landscape of our own making (working title).
 



Familiar Strangers  |  The 23 intervals  |  19

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The 23 intervals
Although this is not an exhaustive study at this point, the evidence from inquiry 
here presents shifts in naturalist designs alongside new ideological stances, terms, 
theories or breakthroughs in our understanding of nature, or Nature. The trajectory 
these wallpapers appear to suggest, when placed in context with the research is a 
procession of ideological violence against nature—mythology fades to romanticism, 
which fades to hyperrealism, which turns into machined nature, and finally ends 
in habitat obliteration, and genetic modification (see Appendix B: The 23 intervals, 
Table 01 for a full list of environmental, social, and economic events so far during 
the Anthropocene alongside descriptions, titles, and interpretations of the chosen 
wallpaper designs). To me, this appears to be plotting a course of knowing nature not 
on its own terms, making “in what way can I make these shifts apparent” becomes 
the follow-up question to the primary investigative question, “are there new visual 
ways to present evidence of the ideological underpinnings of the Anthropocene?”

In Anselm Franke’s 2013 essay Earthrise and the Disappearance of the Outside in 
discussing the exhibition he curated in the same year, The Whole Earth and the 
Disappearance of the Outside, he speaks to the importance of seeing the whole 
picture (and perhaps even the small details we often overlook):

“Within the context of the discussion of the “Anthropocene” as the 
term for a period in Earth’s history shaped by human influence, an 
age in which mankind becomes a geological factor and the borders 
between “nature” and “man” need to be rethought in the context 
of an ecological paradigm, The Whole Earth aims to situate the 
invocations of the “big picture” within a specific historical frame, 
without which it will become increasingly difficult to even address 
the relations of power and exploitation as such” (Franke, 2013).

Franke is interested in the question of how we can address any pressing issue in 
the Anthropocene if we do not address the entrenched borders between nature as 
Nature, and us14. It is through exploring these lauded wallpaper designs that I present 
a conclusion that designing nature to suit ideological shifts can be traced even 
through simulacra of nature re-presented in repetitive patterns. Familiar Strangers 
then presents ever-worsening shifts of these borders in the familiar spaces of home 
décor—and then asks another follow up question, “if we can find them here, could 
we find them elsewhere?” The answer is most probably “yes”, but then I wonder what 
anyone can do with this knowledge, specifically under capitalist (and colonialist) 
systems so invested in Nature–human dichotomies that any attempt to address the 
relations of power and exploitation found in the Anthropocene seems impossible?  

14. I use the word “entrenched” here to provide context for my intent by using “us”. I do not mean to imply that every single human being 
is stuck in these ways of thinking, but I do believe that the vast majority are entrenched within systems that propose, and support these 
ideological divides for their own benefit. It’s easier to exploit the world till the end of profit if peoples are already conditioned to think of 
“nature” as mere resource, and not as a constitute whole of which we are part, and of which our very survival depends. 



20  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Ideology, and thinking on nature

Sham–Real Shadows

I respond to this by making art and hopefully, through it’s dissemination and resulting 
discussions, raise awareness of issues relating to nature and the subliminal ways we 
are programmed to think of it as Nature. 

Ideology, and thinking on nature
The hyper-aestheticism, and fragility of these boxes signify paper-thin aestheticized 
concepts of Nature, while suggesting human destructiveness through evidence of 
burning. These works suggest a place for an audience to contemplate their own ideas 
of Nature, and their own capacity to explore and engage with it. To quote Paul Klee, 
as stated in 1920, “art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible” (Parry 
et al., 2011, 24), and I hope that Familiar Strangers suggests something worth thinking 
about that is buried behind the ideological lies of modernity: that nature as Nature is 
a hollow box ultimately with nothing to offer. 

I hope that the series speaks for a thinking approach to nature, arguing that we do 
not need to know it in absolutes, but that we simply need to experience it as voluntas 
desertum (already and always free nature) as opposed to solvo desertum (free-willed 
Nature15). The first requires nothing of us, while the latter implicates us at its centre. I 
am not arguing for a world where we free ourselves from the ideologies surrounding 
Nature, but via these introduced Latin terms—the language of flora, fauna and 
minerals—I am suggesting that we need try to forget the old ways of thinking 
entirely for the moment, and spend some more time getting to know nature on (and 
in) its own terms. 

The roughly 10-year intervals in the Familiar Strangers timeline are purposely 
fluid, presenting an echo of shifting ideological stances. Like Martin Heidegger’s 
“soundless wind”16 or J.B. Mackinnon’s “shifting baselines”17, it is something you never 
directly see but which presents itself over time through its affects. It is the storm in 
the chimney, the rustle of leaves, the Caribou Island18 where no one living has ever 
seen caribou (an ecological echo on the map). Through these works I hope to gently 
remind my audience that, as the lead quote of this chapter suggests, even if it does 
not directly engage us consciously, design is never passive. 

15. The suggestion here is that the nature has never existed independently of us, and therefore requires no freeing up of its bondage. The only 
chains that must be broken are the modes of thinking about Nature.
16. “Heidegger poetically said that you never hear the wind in itself, only the storm whistling in the chimney, the wind in the trees.” (Morton, 
The Ecological Thought, 2012, p. 57) The wind has no real physical presence and just like ideology it must come into contact with something to 
exist.
17. Shifting baselines is a concept predicated on the idea that each person carries a baseline of how they have seen the world and that as new 
generations arrive their baselines for measuring change are shifted from their ancestors.
18. The region of Nova Scotia where I grew up. There hasn’t been Caribou there in over two hundred years, and I’ve only known Caribou 
Island as a peninsula with an odd name. This is because three months before I was born a massive hurricane forced sandbanks to rise and block 
Caribou Harbour thus making the island a natural peninsula which carries two ecological echos of the past.



Familiar Strangers  |  Evocative objects  |  21

Sham–Real Shadows

In the same way the hidden arrow in the FedEx logo19 primes us to think of them 
as the swiftest, wallpaper (and other designs) subliminally shape our thoughts as 
to what constitutes “natural”. Local Vancouver writer, J. B. MacKinnon opines, “We 
shape the world, and it shapes us in return. We are the creator and the created, the 
maker and the made,” (Mackinnon, 2013, 152), a thought I share and that I hope is 
evident in the work—specifically that it suggests an entanglement as part of nature 
(as an Aesopian arrow) and not outside it as Nature requires. 

In Ecology without Nature Timothy Morton states:
 

“But ultimately, theory (and meditation, for that matter) is not 
supposed to make you a “better person” in any sense. It is supposed 
to expose hypocrisy, or if you prefer, to examine the ways in which 
ideological illusions maintain their grip” (Morton, Ecology Without 
Nature, 2007, 12). 

I continue to look for these strange yet familiar ways of seeing in the many things 
around me everyday. I see it in the shape, and textures of the urban environment 
as much as see it in the landscapes in video games. I think these both familiar, and 
strange things become subconscious background noise. My desire is to then amplify, 
miniaturize, or otherwise make these visual signifiers for ideology worthy of further 
exploration, and contemplation focused on the ways we think about nature, and us. 
Ultimately I do this to remind others and myself that, “Nature is not a temple, but a 
ruin. A beautiful ruin, but a ruin all the same” (Mackinnon, 2013, 101).

Evocative objects
Familiar Strangers presents a moment where the audience is obliged to cast shadows 
using the light on their mobile phones, thus crafting a photographic moment 
where fleeting shadows span across walls. As they push, pull and drag the shadows 
they give this work life. This photographic interplay of light and shadow, negative 
and positive, group and intimacy, that when approached meditatively provide a 
phenomenological experience to engage with simulacrum of nature that can never 
be voluntas desertum—yet the life of the object is there as long as the audience 
maintains it (Figure 12, and see Sham–Real Shadows Exhibition video documentation 
in Appendix B).

In her book Evocative Objects Sherry Turkel puts forth the term evocative object 
as a conceptual framework for understanding our everyday personal objects as 
“emotional and intellectual companions that anchor memory, sustain relationships, 

19. Between the “e” and the “x” there lays a hidden arrow pointing left-to-right that subconsciously implies forward motion (in a Western 
function) through a form of cognitive reading expectation referred to as page gravity. 



22  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Evocative objects

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 12: Audience members illumes the “box that failed”—in cutting this one the lasers cut too far and 
several birds were cleaved from the design. Here they are presented as breaks from the patterning, laying 
“dead” on the ground. Shown: Interval 22: the heat of the sun is you (working title). Laser-cut paper and 
MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014. 

 

and provoke new ideas” (Turkel, 2007). The most accessible tool today is one’s own 
mobile phone, which is also usually their primary photographic tool, as well as a 
simple lighting device. 

Corrine Vionnet’s composite photographic works utilize this anchoring of memory 
through combining hundreds of different tourist shots scoured from the Internet 
all taken by different people from extremely similar vantage points (vistas built for 
tourists). The result is a ghostly image—a collective memory rather than an individual 
straight photographic replica. This points to apparent human need to understand 
something through photographing it with their own tools. I hope then by forcing the 
audience to interact with Familiar Strangers via their own evocative objects that they 
come to a different, perhaps more personal outcome than via passive observation. 
I also think it’s important to have in the audience’s hands an investigative tool in 



Familiar Strangers  |  Evocative objects  |  23

Sham–Real Shadows

order to search for data hinted at in the titles20 to ultimately lead to discovery and 
engagement with the broader issues my work, their titles, and the accompanying 
didactic text touches on. This is especially important when considering that these 
issues are only suggested at in the various accompany text, and are not inherent in 
Familiar Strangers directly. 

20. All keywords are chosen for their ability to land the audience on the first page of an online search should they seek more data on the 
presented topic.

Figure 13: Left: Audience members light up Interval 11: this is how we dance under waves you can not see 
(working title). Laser-cut paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 
2014. Right: Audience members light up Interval 20: the world does not die with us (working title). Laser-cut 
paper and MDF, glue, embroidery thread, Phillips screws. 10.16 x 10.16 x 10.16 cm. 2014. 

 



24  |  Familiar Strangers  |  Harm  |  Nature as un-re-presentable 

Sham–Real Shadows

Harm
By presenting these delicate cubes outside of vitrines on thin nearly invisible shelves 
they are left vulnerable to an increased desire to touch that opens up the possibility 
of harm. Morton describes art as space not for “positive qualities (Eros),” but of 
negative ones, that holds our attention long enough so we may stop “destroying 
things”. He then goes on to remind us that for Walter Benjamin the aesthetic 
alienates, and distances us from the world (Morton, Ecology Without Nature, 2007, 
115). I like to think that both—aesthetic alienation from nature, and a desire to not 
destroy the work—are at play in Familiar Strangers. However, should any harm to the 
sculptures come to pass (this has not yet happened) I intend to let it remain until 
the exhibition is complete. The natural world is not smoothed over, and to that end 
the breaks and entanglements resultant of an accident would serve as another layer 
reminding the viewer of the beautiful lies inherent in the work. That it happened 
“organically” (as opposed to premeditatively) would also not interfere with my 
desires for authenticity and legitimacy. 

Nature as un-re-presentable
To close, the work takes its name from the mash of Morton’s term strange stranger, 
and an observation by René Magritte, that “there’s something else of an unfamiliar 
nature that appears at the same time as familiar things” (Virilio, 1991, 47). In this 
work exists a strangeness familiar to us all, which presents, and acts more than just 
décor: it points to its own strange strangeness in its stamped repetition devoid of 
any wildness. It is an impossibility masquerading as plausibility. In the same way that 
nature should require no re-presentation (because it’s impossible, yet at some level 
it is always familiar) and that Nature requires re-presentations (because it is always 
estranged from the actual), Familiar Strangers draws the audience towards itself 
because of its familiarity, but disorients them because of its strangeness.



Sham–Real Shadows  |  25

Sham–Real Shadows

Sham–Real Shadows



26  |  Sham–Real Shadows

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 14: Fragility remains as a consistent element as the interior design depends on only a few 0.3175 cm 
supports just as the little cube cousin depends on 0.15875 cm supports. Another important distinction is 
that the lighting for Sham-Real Shadows is provided, and integrated in its display. This permits a projection 
of shadows further outward so that the piece may fill an entire space with shadows, and light. Shown: 
Sham–Real Shadows. Laser-cut MDF, embroidery thread, custom light fixture, and you. 55.8 x 55.8 x 55.8 cm. 
2015. 



Sham–Real Shadows  |  Description  |  Inspiration  |  27

Sham–Real Shadows

Description
Sham-Real Shadows isn’t just an aggrandizement of its Familiar Strangers cousin 
(Interval 09). The pattern, technical aspects, and shape are indeed similar, however 
as an installation the work creates a space where the audience can be immersed in 
projected shadow and light of romantic patterning of Nature. It is also a single work 
that compresses Nature to a single moment (rather than a serial timeline) that pulls 
the audience in, and implicates them as explorers inside an environment in which 
they are participants (with or without knowing). As a result it crafts a landscape of 
shadows and metaphor. 

Inspiration
As a master of naturalist home décor, who also rejected the processes of 
industrialization, William Morris favoured stylized evocations over literal 
transcriptions of nature, deploring the later depictions as “sham-real houghs21 [sic] 
and flowers, casting sham-real shadows” (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2011). In other 
words, Morris rejects overly realistic depictions of nature in pattern, yet I read this as 
a statement of desire to do the opposite—to reinforce nature as man-made through 
highly aestheticized, complex patterning. Close to the same time I came across this 
quote I stumbled upon the before-mentioned Magritte quote on the strangeness of 
the familiar (Virilio, 1991, 47). These quotes are the genesis of my thinking around 
shadows as a source for double meaning. As a part of my practice shadows take 
on many forms both as substances to manifest, as metaphor for ideologies, as 
photographic play, and as a presentation of a flattened hollowing out of nature when 
compared to the real deal.  

21. Hough is word loosely defined as a suggestion of a useless limb, and in this instance a severed, decorative branch.



28  |  Sham–Real Shadows  |  Similarity to other artworks

Sham–Real Shadows

Similarity to other artworks
Sham-Real Shadows was developed independently of Anila Quayyum Agha’s 2014 
work Intersections22, a piece it bears a strong material resemblance to. It’s important 
to note that Intersections carried no relative bearing on the decisions I made in 
making my work as I was not aware of Agha’s work until after I finished prototyping. 
Fortunately the two pieces diverge at several points. For example Sham-Real Shadows 
grew out of the process of crafting Familiar Strangers whereas Intersections does 
not appear to grow out of a trajectory of working with cubes at all, although it does 
grow out of a long term interest in pattern. With that in mind it’s important to state 
that although it did not impact my creative process, discovering Intersections did 
affect how I present it as I do not suspend my work as Agha does, rather I present it 
on a narrow plinth or bespoke legs. In this way Sham–Real Shadows has an imposing 
yet familiar presence (like a silent gramophone in the middle of room filled with 
shadow and light) different from imposing, alien presence of Intersections. 

At a surface level the two works are also conceptually dissimilar. Agha describes 
Intersections as “interrogat[ing] a motif…believed to represent…Islamic sacred 
spaces” and speaks to a lived “experience of exclusion as a woman from a space 
of community and creativity…in Pakistan” (“Anila Quayyum Agha”, 2015). In a way 
we are both speaking about embedded ideologies—small acts of violence as I call 
them—evidenced in pattern motifs, but the limitations facing Muslim women in 
Pakistan, and dangerous Romantic ideals of Nature do have limited overlaps beyond 
the idea of hegemony (and patriarchy) as controller which both do speak toward. 
Additionally, although I have not seen it in person, the audience for Intersections 
appears relegated to observation23, but in Sham-Real Shadows the audience is an 
integral part of the materials of the work, with the materials list directly listing “you” 
as a material. 

Marianne Nicolson’s Bakwin-a’tsi Container for Souls (2006) is another visually 
similar work. The precision, and consideration of detail in her design is something I 
appreciate, and while it is interesting that we both speak to colonialism in visually 
similar works, she speaks of it in much more personal ways by using pattern to 
explore ceremony, family and the genocide perpetuated by the Canadian residential 
schools system. Susan Rome, Coordinator of School Programs at the Vancouver Art 
Gallery, writes of the work “Was I inside the box or outside it? I became an active 
part … as my own body created more shadows on the walls” (Rome, 2011). This is 
the same sort of phenomenological experience I hope my audience takes away when 
they are inside the Sham–Real Shadows space.

 

22. This is also a laser-cut wood cube. 
23. I have not personally seen this work, but am basing my evalution off of various video and photographic documentation.



Sham–Real Shadows  |  Shadowpaper  |  29

Sham–Real Shadows

Shadowpaper
The changes to scale, and lighting fundamentally change the engagement with 
the form. Where Familiar Strangers functions when explored up close Sham–Real 
Shadows is explored at a distance, while at the same time on the audience’s bodies. 
I call the projection of light, and shadow onto the adjacent walls shadowpaper 
(Figure 14). Unlike wallpaper it does not merely decorate a surface, but the surface 
is temporarily decorated because of it. It is shadow wallpaper, but is also a shadow 
of wallpaper. Furthermore, when a viewer passes through the space they cannot 
avoid disruption to the shadowpaper, finding it on their bodies just as shadows 
of their bodies are cast upon the walls. The phenomenological experience is that 
the audience implicates themselves in the work, and its theoretical framework, 
by becoming literally awash with a Romantic patterning of Nature. This is not 

Figure 15: Shadowpaper cast from Sham–Real Shadows.

 



30  |  Sham–Real Shadows  |  Shadowpaper

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 16: Overlapping shadowpaper cast by Sham–Real Shadows and by other audience generated light 
sources. 



Sham–Real Shadows  |  The overlaps  |  31

Sham–Real Shadows

something that is noticed immediately by a lone audience member, rather becoming 
most apparent when a second person occupies the space, thus providing an example 
of this implication.

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s recent presentation of Vancouver-based collective 
WALLPAPERS24 exhibit Beyond the Trees: Wallpapers in Dialogue with Emily Carr 
(25 April to 7 September 2015) “reflect[s] on their perceptions of British Columbia’s 
coastal landscape …  through the use of digitally animated patterns … [where] 
nature is viewed through powerful aesthetic filters” (‘Beyond the Trees: Wallpapers 
in Dialogue with Emily Carr’, 2015). This exhibition of video projected wallpapers 
reflected issues relating to sublime landscapes, clear cuts forests, and paper 
products—primarily relating to the logging industry often critiqued by Emily Carr 
through her landscapes. 

There are some overlaps of concerns with WALLPAPERS’ work, but for me it was 
the user engagement that spoke most.  In both there is a permission of delight, 
or even whimsy, by having the patterns project onto the audience’s bodies. There 
is something in this joy of engagement that translates the experience first as 
salve for bleak subject matter—clear cutting, and the horrors of industrial logging 
on the British Columbian landscape being a dominate theme in WALLPAPER’s 
work; large scale terrains of the future in mine—that invites a phenomenological 
engagement, that then carries with it an acknowledgement, and remembrance of 
the concepts, and contents the works suggest. Both works draw attention to “how 
one experiences nature in a constructed setting” (“Beyond the Trees: Wallpapers in 
Dialogue with Emily Carr”, 2015), but ultimately it is in the enjoyment of the work 
that space opens up for an audience who avoids thinking about, or discussing painful 
issues surrounding nature in contemporary world. These projected wallpapers, 
Sham–Real Shadows included, function as salves to sooth those nerves, and as gentle 
passageways to discussions so desperately needed today. 

The overlaps
As with Familiar Strangers, Sham–Real Shadows is the mesh writ large—the only 
way to truly see Nature (visually or cognitively) is to disturb it—too see past the fog 
of anthropomorphism, and see clearly. With this in mind the box can be viewed as 
indicative of passive repetition of a conceptual structuralism that ensnares our ideas 
about nature as Nature, while the shadowpaper becomes the phenomenological 
engagement with the installation space that activates it and frees it from any 
specific, applied thought. It’s toying with the notion of putting nature in a double 

24. This collective consists of artists Nicolas Sassoon, Sara Ludy and Sylvain Sailly.



32  |  Sham–Real Shadows  |  The overlaps

Sham–Real Shadows

box, one solid, and the other made of only shadows, and then placing the audience in 
the middle of it all. 

This becomes more apparent and dynamic with the myriad overlapping 
shadowpapers on the walls, floor, ceiling, and audience—yellow-toned from the 
provided light source, and blue-toned from cell phone lights—that result from 
exploring the physical sculpture (Figure 16). Like the upward fettering of the 
pattern, only generated by the audience, these are doubled shadows layering 
upon themselves where the viewer and the artist meld. It’s a moment where this 
repetitious permanently applied thing, wallpaper, starts to fall apart. I’ve created 
something solid (like wallpaper), but delicate, to project shadows that are reliant on a 
light source, which in turn questions the way the pattern is now reliant on something 
new. The never-moving light is no longer the sole actor, and the result is a shift, a 
disturbance, in its form that renders the source no longer solid, and knowable. I am 
inviting my audience to come to my work, and resist it, to add to it, to mess around 
with it. As a metaphor that suggests that although the pattern source (ideology) is 
static, the energy we (humanity) bring to it is not. This points more directly to an 
immutable Nature, to life in engagement, and entanglement in the mesh. There are 
always possibilities in shadows. 



Mapping the past  |  33

Sham–Real Shadows

Mapping the past



34  |  Mapping the past  |  The 23 intervals infographic

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 17: The 23 intervals research info-graphic. 61 x 61 cm. 2015. (See Appendix A for a high-resolution 
version).

   
  1

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 18

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1869: First N
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1866: First transatlantic telegraph cable laid

1866: Term ecology coined

1878: N
orthern Sea Route navigated

1862: Parkesine patented (first plastic)

1865: Periodic Table of the Elements published

1865: US slavery ends

1865: First typewriter invented

1864: Man and Nature published (first book to 

1864: Trading of futures begins

1863: Alkali Acts (first air pollution laws)

1863: First underground urban railway opens

1871: England legalizes trade unions (first nation)

1877: Phonograph invented

1875: Term
 biosphere coined

1872: Desirability of Establishing a “Close-tim
e” for the 

1873: Anthropozoic Era proposed (early Anthropocene)

1874: Telephone patented

1851: Crystal Palace Exhibition 
1853: World’s first public aquarium

1852: First multi-city trip through the air

1848: The Communist Manifesto published

1859: Carrington Event 

1860: Pollution used to describe enviro. contamination

1858: BEIC territory annexed into BE

1857: Mughal territory conquered by BE

1857: Symbolism movement begins

1854: The US “Black Ships” force Japan to 1856: Second Opium War 

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pressionism

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1886: First eight hour w
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1886: C
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1893: W
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 a

nd
 T

he
 O

nc
e 

an
d 

Fu
tu

re
 W

or
ld

 p
. 

20
12

: T
he

 E
co

lo
gi

ca
l T

ho
ug

ht
 p

ub
lis

he
d

20
13

: T
he

 A
nt

hr
op

oc
en

e 
Pr

oj
ec

t,
 H

K
W

 B
er

lin

20
11

: F
uk

us
hi

m
a 

nu
cl

ea
r 

di
sa

st
er

 

20
11

: L
ea

de
d 

ga
so

lin
e 

ba
nn

ed
 in

te
rn

at
io

na
lly

20
11

: D
ee

p 
G

re
en

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es

is
ta

nc
e 

fo
un

de
d

20
10

: D
ee

pw
at

er
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or
iz

on
 d

is
as

te
r

20
00

: T
er

m
 A

nt
hr

op
oc

en
e 

co
in

ed
 in

 c
ur

re
nt

 d
efi

ni
tio

n

19
97

: E
xt

irp
at

io
n 

of
 b

ee
s i

n 
M

ao
; w

or
ke

rs
 h

an
d 

po
lle

na
te

20
03

: H
ur

ric
an

e 
Ju

an
 s

la
m

s 
in

to
 N

ov
a 

Sc
ot

ia

1949: A Sand County Almanc published (land ethic

1952: The Great Smog (London)

1952: Pop Art movement begins

1946: WWII in Asia ends
1947: Hydraulic fracturing process invented

1947: Term evolutionary synthesis clarified 1948: United Nations founded

20
15

: s
ti

ll 
se

ek
in

g 
an

sw
er

s

1957: Sputnik is first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth
1956: UK Clean Air Act passed

20
07

: S
te

p 
It

 U
p 

ra
lli

es
   

20
07

: T
er

m
 b

io
ce

nt
ris

m
 c

oi
ne

d

20
07

: fi
rs

t 
he

ar
d 

D
ea

r 
M

ia
m

i

1969
: First

 hum
ans o

n the
 moo

n

1968:
 The P

opula
tion B

omb p
ublish

ed

1971
: UN

ESC
O M

an a
nd B

iosp
here

 

1971
: Firs

t em
ail 

1970
: U.S

. Env
ironm

enta
l Pro

tecti
on A

genc
y 

1972
: Co

nfer
ence

 on 
the 

Hum
an E

nviro
nme

nt 

1972
: Gre

en P
eace

  fou
nde

d     
 197

2: Fi
rst D

DT 
ban

19
95

: S
hi

fti
ng

 B
as

eli
ne

 S
yn

dr
om

e 
pu

bl
ish

ed

1973
: Ter

m d
eep 

ecol
ogy 

coin
ed  

1973
: Gr

een
 Par

ty fo
rme

d

1973
: OP

EC 
oil c

risis

1961: World Wide F
und for Nature (WW

F) founded

1962 Cuban M
issile Crisis1962: LED lig

ht technology
 developed

1962: Silent Sp
ring published

1960: OPEC founded 

1965: Fi
rst succ

essful la
wsuit fo

r enviro
nmenta

l harm 

1964: Ear
th Art an

d Op Art
 moveme

nts begin

197
4: W

orld
’s la

rges
t lan

d pa
rk f

oun
ded

19
90

: T
er

m
 re

wi
ldi

ng
 co

in
ed

19
89

: E
xx

on
 V

ald
ez

 d
isa

st
er

19
91

: C
ol

lap
se

 o
f t

he
 S

ov
ie

t B
lo

c

197
7: F

irst
 ful

ly s
equ

enc
ed 

DN
A g

eno
me

19
92

: R
io

 ’9
2 E

ar
th

 S
um

m
it

19
86

: C
he

rn
ob

yl 
nu

cle
ar 

dis
as

te
r

198
0: 

Vo
lck

er 
Sh

ock
 (h

ype
r in

flat
ion

)

198
0: 

Ea
rth

 Fir
st!

 Fo
un

de
d

197
8: N

eol
ibe

rali
sm

 firs
t us

ed 
in c

urr
ent

 sen
se

197
9: T

hre
e M

ile 
Isla

nd
 nu

cle
ar e

ven
t

197
9: G

aia
: A

 ne
w l

ook
 at

 life
 on

 Ea
rth

 pu
blis

hed

197
9: 

my
 ba

sel
ine

 st
art

s h
ere

 

19
85

: H
ole

 in
 oz

on
e l

ay
er 

pr
ov

en

19
84

: T
erm

 ec
oc

en
tri

sm
 co

ine
d

1920: British cod fishery collapse
1914: Panam

a C
anal opens

1914: A
m

erican passenger pigeon is declared extinct

1914: W
orld W

ar I begins

1919: Treaty of Versailles—
m

ap of Europe redraw
n

1939: World War II begins

1929: Abstract Expressionism
 begins

1929: Black Tuesday (stock m
arket crash)

1930: The Great Dust Bowl begins

1930: Socialist Realism
 begins

1913: T
he assem

bly line invented

1916: Easter U
prising—

decolonization of Europe begins

1916: Technicolour invented

1916: Plant Sucession published (landscapes evolve 

1933: Nazis came to power federally in Germany

1935: Terms ecosystem, biocoenosis, biotype coined 

1935: Term Dauerwald coined (“perpetual 

1936: Keynesian Economics theory published

1936: Tasmanian Tiger extinct

1915: T
he Ecological Society of A

m
erica is founded

1917: First national dependence on food im
ports

1922: Term
s Anthropogene and N

oosphere coined 

1927: First “Talkie” film

1943: First big smog attributed to automobiles

1942: The Manhattan Project begins

1925: Television invented

1925: Scopes Trial on teaching of evolution versus 

1944: First nuclear bomb test

1944: International Monetary Found founded

17
87

: F
irs

t 
st

ea
m

 s
hi

p 
is

 p
at

en
te

d

18
04

: F
irs

t l
oc

om
ot

ive

glo
ba

l w
ea

the
r a

nd
 te

mp
era

tur
es

181
7: E

rie
 Ca

nal
 co

nst
ruc

tio
n b

egi
ns

rem
ain

ing
 Ind

ian
 co

lon
ial 

res
ista

nce

1825
: Firs

t sto
ck m

arke
t cra

sh

1829: 
Hot b

last in
dustri

al pro
cess in

vente
d

te
m

pe
ra

tu
re

s f
or

 at
 le

as
t t

en
 ye

ar
s

system begi
ns

language of Ind
ia

1839: Rubber vulcanized 

1840: Tea plantations established in India

1839: Electricity is clarified

1844: Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation published

1847: The Vegetarian Society formed

1848: Realism movement begins

1859: On the Origins of Species published

1859: Greenhouse effect explained

open its borders to trade

1869: Suez Canal opens

examine man’s effects on nature)

1865: Principles for genetics established

nature protection law)

Preservation of Indigenous Anim
als series first published

1872: W
orld’s first national park established

1865: Impressionism movement begins

1877: Victoria I proclaim
ed Em

press of India

1879: Light bulb patented

1883: First solar cell invented

1890
: First successful airplane flight

1887: G
ram

ophone is patented

 1887: First w
orking w

ind turbine

 1885: First autom
obile patented

A
frica and the regulation of N

ew
 Im

perialism

190
2: First artificial clim

ate m
achine

1896: C
O

2 em
issions first linked to clim

ate change

1898: T
he C

oal Sm
oke A

batem
ent Society form

ed
 (first environm

ental N
G

O
)

190
4: Standard O

il controls 91%
 oil

190
4: Study of geopolitics coined 

C
apitalism

 published (C
apitalism

 as C
alvinist)

1914: Ford: sets 8/5 w
ork w

eek/pays m
ore

11917: Red O
ctober Revolution

1917: Surrealism
, D

ada, and D
e Stijl m

ovem
ents begin

tow
ard perfection/ nature can repair itself)

(pre–Anthropocene term
s) 

 1922: Term
 environm

entalism
 coined

1925: Process for frozen food invented

1929: Great Depression begins

creationism
 in U

S public schools

1925: Art D
éco and Surrealist m

ovem
ents begin

1936: The General Theory of Employment,

 Interest and Money published

forest” meaning eternal; forest management)

1945: Rapid global political decolonization begins

1945: WWII in Europe ends

1946: Great Acceleration begins

(how evolution proceeds)

—responsible relationship between humans and nature)

1949: Term desertification coined

1952: Caribbean Monk Seal extinct

1952: Term global warming coined

1962: First com
puter game

1960: First working laser

1971
: Bre

tton
 Wo

ods 
syste

m ab
ando

ned

1970
: Cas

pian 
Tiger

 extin
ct

1970
: Firs

t Ear
th D

ay ce
lebra

tions

1972
: Th

e Ga
ia Th

eory
, Th

e Lim
its to

 Gro
wth

, and
   

Shou
ld Tr

ees H
ave 

Stan
ding

 all p
ublis

hed

1973
: US

 End
ang

ered
 Spe

cies
 Act

  19
72: “

Thin
k glo

bally
, act

 loca
lly” c

amp
aign 197

9: T
he 

Sin
kin

g A
rk i

s p
ub

lish
ed

198
0: 

En
vir

on
me

nta
l Ju

stic
e m

ove
me

nt 
be

gin
s

19
84

: S
ea

 of
 Sl

au
gh

ter
 pu

bli
sh

ed

19
86

: C
he

rn
ob

yl 
wi

ldl
ife

 pr
es

er
ve

 be
gin

s

19
86

: R
isk

 So
cie

ty 
pu

bli
sh

ed

19
92

: N
ew

fo
un

dl
an

d 
co

d 
fis

he
ry

 co
lla

ps
e

19
97

: K
yo

to
 P

ro
to

co
l c

re
at

ed

20
07

: T
he

 W
or

ld
 W

it
ho

ut
 U

s,
 a

nd
 E

co
lo

gy
 W

it
ho

ut
 

N
at

ur
e 

pu
bl

is
he

d 
an

d 
A

n 
In

co
nv

ie
nt

 T
ru

th
 r

el
ea

se
d

20
12

: W
or

ld
’s

 la
rg

es
t 

m
ar

in
e 

pa
rk

 f
ou

nd
ed

20
13

: H
um

an
–m

ad
e 

gl
ob

al
 w

ar
m

in
g 

is
 d

ec
la

re
d

 r
ea

lit
y

       
       

  Inte
rval 2

3

    
    

    
    I

nte
rva

l 22

   
   

   
   

    
In

te
rv

al 
21

   
   

   
   

   
 In

te
rv

al
 2

0

   
   

   
   

   
 In

te
rv

al
 1

9

   
   

   
   

   
 In

te
rv

al
 1

8

   
   

   
   

   
 In

te
rv

al
 1

7

   
   

   
   

   
 In

te
rv

al
 1

6

    
    

    
    

In
te

rv

al
 15

      
      

    I
nte

rva
l 14

               
 Interv

al 13

                Interval 12

                Interval 11

                Interval 10

                Interval 09

                Interval 08

                Interval 07

                Interval 0
6

                Interval 0
5

                Interval 04

                Interval 03

                Interval 02

                Interval 01



Mapping the past  |  The 23 intervals infographic  |  35

Sham–Real Shadows

The 23 intervals infographic
The intention with The 23 intervals (Figure 17), infographic is to make more 
apparent the connections I see between the chosen patterns shifting nature–
human ideologies, and the socio-political landscapes of the Anthropocene. When 
finished, The 23 intervals will present a timeline of the Three Pillars of Sustainability 
(environmental, social, and economic) milestones since 1784 alongside milestones in 
literature, design, and art, against the chosen wallpapers (Table 01). The graph also 
charts the active lived baseline of my own life, starting in 1979, for I can only truly 
know, in an embodied way, how bad things have gotten since I have been alive. 

The colouring is derived from a photograph of an exoatmospheric denotation 
event (a nuclear bomb in space) from October 1962 as part of the strangely named 
Operation Fishbowl Bluegill (also found at the centre of the infographic). I chose this 
because it resembles the first complete, clear image of the Earth from space, dubbed 
The Blue Marble, which was taken on my birth date (seven years earlier to the day) 
on 07 December 1972. The difference between the two images is that one pretends 
to speak to the futility of human existence in the vast expanse of space, while 
the speaks to our ability to render any pontification moot as it is a nuclear bomb 
exploding in space. The conflation this juxtaposition presents is the world I was 
born into that continues to go down the proverbial rabbit hole where the systems 
trapping us do not wish to control nature at all—they wish to use it till the end of 
profit. Or us.25, 26

25. The two sentences at the end is a paraphrase of an impassioned discussion between my advisor, Fiona Bowie, and myself in August 
2015. The thought was not my own at the time, but it is one that I now see reflected in my thinking around human–nature dichotomies and 
paradoxes and I have now adopted as my own. 
26. In another autobiographical note, Van den Eijnden is a curious, and awkward name most likely stemming from Napoleon’s census 1811. It 
translates to “Of the End”. The emphasis on the E is important as the 19th century south Dutch spelling transitions the word from the “end” of 
some thing to the End of all things. It would then appear that I am demarcated as being of the apocalypse in more ways than one.  



36  |   

Sham–Real Shadows



Part II: Pointing aimlessly with accuracy  |  37

Sham–Real Shadows

Part II: Pointing aimlessly with accuracy



38  |  On arrows, and thinking

Sham–Real Shadows

On arrows, and thinking
 

“The haft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle’s 
own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own 
destruction.”

—Aesop
 
The problem with arrows is that they can be accurate without being precise—a 
tool in the midst of negotiation is never quite straight. I see all things as having 
trajectories of their own while remaining interconnected in the mesh of all living and 
nonliving things that haunts at every moment of every day.27 Aesop speaks to this 
ironically when he speaks to small bits left behind used to hunt and kill the eagle. 
But in the second line he implicates us as a warning that what we leave in our wake 
we cannot escape. Today, we have caused our own haunting from our own fantasies 
of Nature. Now we are our own ghosts having brought about the possibility and 
the means of our own destruction, and the potential to take everything else with us 
when we do. 
 
In the base rhetoric of foreshadowing in the Anthropocene we find the suspects 
adrift in eutopia and its sibling dystopia. These heterogeneous conjoined twins 
present only two utopian options in the form of futures. Yet even as these tales 
present scenarios where the arrow has already struck, the embodied distance is 
always lacking in the narrative. Aesop suggests that we are made up of each other: 
archer as us and as nature; the target as nature and as us. If this is true then there is 
no gap, just a conceptual distance that grows bigger in time. Lao Tzu said “if you are 
depressed you are living in the past, if you are anxious you are living in the future, if 
you are at peace you are living in the present.” When applied to today’s ecological 
crisis there is a great deal of investment of the future, and the past, but not enough 
of the present. Admittedly my own work is awash with both anxiety (The Relics of 
the Anthropocene Temple is focused on the future) and depression (Familiar Strangers 
is focused on how we got to where we are today), but in their construction and 
their reception they become something more. Sham-Real Shadows suggests this 
“something more” through enveloping, and crafting a new space that hints at some 
new way of seeing our relationship with nature right now in that moment, but I 
would not describe it as being one “at paece”. 

In her 08 June 2014 talk Anthropocene, Capitalocene, Chtulucene: Staying with the 
Trouble, Donna Haraway argues that we need to spend more time right where we are 
(I agree).

“In the midst of The Three Guineas Virginia Woolf insists, “Think 

27. Mesh and haunt are words employed by Timothy Morton when discussing nature. The Mesh refers to his concept of an interconnected, 
multi directional web of all living and non-living things (this is my interpretation). Haunts is a word Morton uses when referring to the way 
ideological ways of thinking interact and obfuscate our relationship with nature, which he refers to as fantasies (“The Ecological Thought: A 
Reply to a Critic”, 2010).



Ways of knowing: nature, and us   |  39

Sham–Real Shadows

we must.” Think we must. If ever there has been a time for the 
need seriously to think, it is now, and it has got to be the kind of 
thinking that Hannah Arendt accused [Adolph] Eichmann of being 
incapable of. … [The] banality of evil in the figure of Eichmann was 
condensed in Hannah Arendt’s analysis into the incapacity to think 
the world that is actually being lived [emphases are my own]. The 
inability to confront the consequences of the worlding28 that one 
is in fact engaged in, and the limiting and thinking to functionality. 
The limiting of thinking to business as usual. Being smart, perhaps, 
being efficient, perhaps, but that Eichmann was incapable of 
thinking, and in that consisted the banality and ordinariness of 
evil. And I think among us, the question of whether or not we are 
Eichmann’s is a very serious one” (Haraway, 2014).

I am no Eichmann, but that doesn’t mean that I’m a great thinker either, which is 
beside the point. We may all see Aesop’s arrow, but what of its shadow(s)? Aesop 
warns us, “Beware that you do not lose the substance by grasping at the shadow”, 
but this is exactly what we must do—grasp the shadow tight, and if we cannot 
change the direction of the arrow, then like Peter Pan, by grabbing its shadow the 
arrow will follow us. If we aim to think with intent to see and think more clearly, 
undermining the systems that support the systems that made the Anthropocene may 
just be possible. Maybe then eutopia and dystopia don’t have to be the only choices. 
Perhaps something more is possible? 

Ways of knowing: nature, and us 
Possibilities for the future are limited primarily because the problem with grand 
ecological narratives is that they centre us, the human, in their prognostications. 
Eutopia and dystopia are two ends of the forward march of time, and both place 
the story in a swirl around our lone survival. My research driven works, such as 
the wallpaper-derived Familiar Strangers, look at the way the nature-human divide 
has evolved since the onset of the Industrial Revolution, while The Relics of the 
Anthropocene Temple (discussed in detail in Part III) focus on how this divide might 
carry forward into the future. 

In Animism, Anselm Franke posits that what makes us “modern” today is a way of 
distinguishing ourselves from nature. He defines it as a:

28. Worlding won’t be found in any dictionary, even though the term has been in use for nearly a century. Martin Heidegger popularized the 
neologism in his 1927 Being and Time to mean “being-in-the-world.” The idea was to use a verb signifying something ongoing and generative, 
which could not be reduced to either a philosophical state or a scientific materiality. Since then “worlding” has appeared dozens of times in 
philosophy, politics, cultural studies, and technology studies. The word has been appropriated, contested, but never quite pinned down––and 
so remains a floating signifier. Linguists have taught us that terms like “worlding” work less as fixed essences than as mediators of differences 
among the utterances and concepts around them. But this undetermined character hardly makes “worlding” innocent, deriving as it does from a 
noun referencing concepts of origins, boundaries, ethnicities, governance, and even consciousness itself. (“Definition « Worlding”)



40  |  Ways of knowing: nature, and us 

Sham–Real Shadows

“… categorical distinction between nature and society … [that] 
differentiate between facts, the universal laws of nature and 
matter, and cultural symbolic meanings or social relations … [and 
this] knowledge of the indisputable, universal truths of nature is 
acquired through objectification, by distinguishing what is inherent 
to the object from what belongs to the knowing subject and has 
been projected onto the object. … It is this dissociation of the 
subjective from the realm of nature and things that simultaneously 
constitutes the self-possessing subject … [where the] very act of 
division … produces at once an objectified nature composed of 
absolute facts, and a free, detached subject: the modern, Cartesian 
self” (Franke, Animism, 2010, 14–15).

Franke speaks to the worlding of our world today: we are unable to truly grasp our 
individual finitude, nor embrace the possibility of a world (or a universe) without 
us. So how then can one possibly bridge the divide when these nature–human 
dichotomies and paradoxes are rooted so deeply in our individualism, and not found 
within living and non–living societies independent of us? 

In his 1926 novel The Silver Stallion James Branch Cabell wrote, “An optimist 
proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this 
is true.” If dystopia is the time we live in, then the future holds only two options: 
a pessimistic further downward spiral (more dystopia), or optimistic salvation 
(coming eutopia). These visions are often problematic because they’re based on an 
intrinsically dystopian present, and while there is merit in critiquing the detrimental 
present, these fail because they rely on ways of thinking that premise knowing what 
is intrinsically unknowable. 

Dionisio González’ utopic manipulated dwellings provide optimistic answers to 
the problems of climate change in one localized context, namely Dauphin Island, 
Alabama. Although intriguing, and meticulously fabricated (digitally) these proposed 
structures would exist not to mingle within nature, but to resist it—specifically 
to resist the devastating effects of ever increasing brutality in hurricanes, and 
ocean level rise, spurred on by global climate change (“Dionisio Gonzalez Imagines 
Disaster Resistant Surrealist Structures”, 2014). Gonzáles refers to the structures 
as sustainable, but they seem designed to resist reality, and to sustain the current 
modus operandi (see Appendix A, Figure A-03 for a digital sketch of one of Gonzáles 
buildings).

I believe that the search for ecological stability should not lie down in the middle 
with neutopia, nor in the present, but in a radical other space. To find this, we 
must think. In a March 2014 TED talk, How the teddy bear taught us compassion, 
Jon Mooallem declares that our imagination has become an ecological force, while 
already having become an ecological echo (Jon Mooallem, TED, 2014). Is there a fan in 
the house? The affective sensibility of fandom is an essay in which Lawrence Grossberg 
defines ideology as: “the structures of meaning within which we locate ourselves. 
That is, ideologies are the maps of meaning [taken for] granted as the obviously true 



Ways of knowing: nature, and us   |  41

Sham–Real Shadows

pictures of the way the world is. By defining what is natural, and commonsensical, 
ideologies construct the ways we experience the world”, and those constructs filter 
down into how we present it (as is the case with Familiar Strangers, Sham–Real 
Shadows, and The Relics). What I take away from Mooallem and Grossberg is that 
ideologies are the maps, while thinking is the terrain. So perhaps we should spend 
more time in the terrain and do our best to toss the maps aside? 

In Animism Franke summarizes Bruno Latour’s similar thinking of “the division of 
nature and culture, and the subsequent purification of the two domains of subjects 
on the one side, and things on the other” as being ‘only possible by a repression of 
the middle ground, the mediation that connects subjects with objects in multiple 
forms’. For Latour everything happens in the middle, and it is here that our thinking 
needs to function as mediation, translation and networks” (Franke, Animism, 2010, 
26). From this I think that there is possibility for a third space between the terrain 
and the map? These are the strange thoughts that keep me awake at night. 

What happens to our thinking about nature when Nature is excluded from the view? 
Timothy Morton’s concepts the mesh, and the strange stranger, may provide an 
answer:
 

“The ecological thought imagines interconnectedness … “the 
mesh”. … The mesh of interconnected things is vast, perhaps 
immeasurably so. Each entity in the mesh looks strange. Nothing 
exists all by itself, and so nothing is fully “itself”. There is curiously 
“less” of the Universe at the same time, and for the same reasons, 
as we see “more” of it. Our encounter with other beings becomes 
profound. They are strange, even intrinsically strange. Getting to 
know them makes them stranger. When we talk about life forms, 
we’re talking about strange strangers. The ecological thought 
imagines a multitude of entangled strange strangers” (Morton, The 
Ecological Thought, 2012, 15).

 
So, if the map is all the knowledge we have, and the terrain is the “real deal”, then 
this possible third space Franke and Latour speak of may be Morton’s mesh. To 
account for the mesh and the strange stranger is to work in the void between 
romanticized Nature and the real nature; a space where we are part of the subject 
and the nature–human dichotomy and paradoxes fades from view. I think this 
third space is the radical acceptance of the “not knowable knowing” (Morton, The 
Ecological Thought, 2012, 168)—of what I think is the forced phenomenological 
experience of a space and a place we’re already in and not paying much attention to. 

In the paintings of Josh Keyes humans have all vanished without explanation. The 
works are inspired by Alan Weisman’s investigations in The World Without Us, and 
illustrate a future Earth where the human world decays and is slowly reintegrated 
into the natural one. In these works sky, animals, objects, and ground plain are “cut” 
from the scene in architectonic slices that float on a field of white, while animals 
appear naturalistic, or surrealist (in one an orca swims underground ripping up old 
asphalt with its dorsal fin). I interpret Keyes paintings to be less of an illustration 



42  |  Ways of knowing: Capitalocene

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of what will happen, than a demonstration of what is already happening today—
specifically that nature is among us, is around us, for we are a part of it. In this view 
nature knows us, but we do not seem to know it, or at least would rather not truly 
know it on its own terms as voluntas desertum. I see these works as a nod toward this 
radical third space: the mesh. 

J. B. Mackinnon defines nature by “our most ordinary definition [as] the sum total 
of everything that is not us and did not spring from our imaginations” (Mackinnon, 
2013, 9). In the future we are facing human extinction, but at this moment the fog of 
anthropomorphism empowers, and entitles humanity to cause mass extirpations and 
extinctions within the mesh of all living and nonliving things that annihilates what 
makes us human—our connections and uniqueness within the extended realm of 
life—today. This distance has enabled us, but it does not—must not—define us. 

A prominent line of inquiry in Anselm Franke’s curated two-year The Anthropocene 
Project (2013–2014) was “How do we re-sensitize ourselves to the world we live in?” 
and “How do we connect what we do with what we know?” (“The Anthropocene 
Project. A Report”, HKW, 2014). The answer is in this radical third place, possibly the 
mesh, but to access it we must first do what Haraway insists: we must think. 

Ways of knowing: Capitalocene
As we ratchet the world ever further to feed our insatiable appetites, our desperate 
bid to advance technology, and increase organization so that we may escape the 
ramifications only adds fire to the flames. Alongside this we have corporations as 
the predominate social institution of our day, and to quote the opening lines of 
Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott’s 2003 documentary The Corporation, “like the 
telephone system ... [corporations extend] everywhere.” Khan Lee explores systems 
of capitalism and commerce in Hearts & Arrows where he cuts an ice diamond of 
literal ice at sunrise with Vancouver’s iconic shipping cranes in the background. This 
exhibition at Centre A (23 May–27 July 2013) had a huge impact on my thinking on 
the possibility of, in Lee’s own words, “creating meaning from an imperfect situation” 
(“Hearts and Arrows”, Centre A, 2013). He was speaking to the act of production, but 
I read it as Anthropocene metaphor. 

In the Age of Man29, this imperfect situation I’m interested in, humans are often cast 
as the principal cause of doom, but I do not believe this to be true. Some are more 
directly to blame, but the majority of humanity finds itself trapped within a system 

29. The folly of Man as a gendered signifier is apt as it is hard to see how the same state of affairs could arise of a more pluralistic system void 
of the fog of patriarchy. To quote from University of Wisconsin: Milwaukee’s Anthropocene Feminism conference website: “In many ways, 
however, the Anthropocene is a strikingly resonant iteration of the problematic forcefully articulated in Donna Haraway’s “Cyborg Manifesto,” 
which sees the human, nonhuman, culture, and nature as inextricably entangled, and warns that the consequences of attempts to dominate 
human and nonhuman nature can be at once devastatingly successful and productively perverse. Indeed, the concept of the Anthropocene has 
arguably been implicit in feminism, critical theory, and queer theory for decades, a genealogy that is largely ignored, or worse, erased, by the 
masculine authority of science.” (“Anthropocene Feminism | April 10-12, 2014”)



Ways of knowing: Capitalocene  |  43

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from which escape is not an advertised option. In her talk Haraway also discusses 
this entrapment, and then places the blame for “the failings of the Anthropos and 
the Anthropocene” to the underlying Capitalocene, a neologism of her own that 
references the death grip of capitalist systems (Haraway, 2014). Everything that is 
wrong with the Anthropocene is very important to the Capitalocene, which Haraway 
dates to the mid-twelfth century rise of massive trade routes, and banking systems. 
For example, the melting arctic means that more oil (approximately 30% of the 
world’s reserves) are now up for grabs. In her words, “The sucking of the last calorie 
of carbon out of this planet is a big deal” (Haraway, 2014). But it’s not just the arctic, 
or things far, far away from most of us. Lily Allen, in the song The Fear, writes “... I am 
a weapon of massive consumption / And it’s not my fault it’s how I’m programmed 
to function.” Everyone is at risk to being converted by the Capitalocene into weapons 
of massive consumption or they will find themselves facing elimination (weeding) 
from the system (the pattern)—for what does not contribute to economic value does 
not have value under capitalism30. Capitalism is intent to use up this world and all its 
inhabitants until the end of profit, but Colonialism isn’t dead either, having merely 
morphed from nation states to corporations. It’s ramped up, on speed and steroids, 
and it’s hungry—and in the Anthropocene–Capitalocene what, and who does not fit 
the pattern is weeded out. 

In his 2013 book 24/7: Late capitalism and the End of Sleep Jonathan Crary, in his 
discussion on sleep as the final frontier of capitalism, posits that a world that never 
sleeps needs no awakening (Crary, 2013). Capitalism has no interest in the Anthropos 
as its raison d’être is augmented financial gain without limit—a purpose driving 
and greatly benefitting from the technological and industrial advancements of the 
Anthropocene. It is a system that has ensnared all of us as consumer, consumed, 
or that which is weeded away in order to underscore short–term gain over long–
term sustainability. Crary summarizes the real problems facing the Anthropocene 
today: “even among plural voices affirming that ‘another world is possible,’ there is 
often the misconception that economic justice, mitigation of climate change, and 
egalitarian social relations can somehow occur alongside the continued existence 
of corporations like Google, Apple, and General Electric” (Crary, 49). On Karl Marx 
he reminds us that, “the first requirement of capitalism, [Marx] wrote, was the 
dissolution of the relation to the earth” (Crary, 63). The book is a tour-de-force in its 
critique of capitalism as the driving force behind a destructive Anthropocene, but it 
also presents mediations on why we “conjure an exemption for the biocide underway 
everywhere on this planet” (Crary, 101) while reminding the reader that our “fate is 
not terminal” and that it is possible to envision a world without billionaires, which 
has a future other than barbarism or the post-human, and in which history can take 
on other forms than reified nightmares of catastrophe”31 (Crary, 128). Inside me is 
a battle between my inner cynic and my depressed sense of hope that whispers to 

30. I am not against consumption, nor am I directly opposed to some aspects of capitalism which is in social and human forms of measurement 
often much better than the feudal systems it replaced, but yet even as I type this on my 2010 MacBook Air and do so in the hopes of better 
explaining a practice that is embedded in the exchange of capital, I can not find any way to deny that we all consume far too much, and that 
the effects of this is that of a supernova on the resources, systems, and societies that we need to survive. And that is to say nothing to the 
mineral, plant and animal forms we must share this world with. 
31. I have not overlooked the irony that this is what the works of The Temple discussed in Part III presents first for the audience.  



44  |  Ways of unknowing: are there any?

Sham–Real Shadows

me that the future that Crary envisions is just not possible. I do not want the End 
to be dark, and it may be cynical, but I find his “world without billionaires” as much 
a fantasy as romantic Nature. To overcome this perhaps hope is a commodity that 
needs to be reclaimed, and spread liberally. 

Ways of unknowing: are there any?
It is my belief that utopian thinking will not save us, nor will it provide a reason to. 
As Martin states we need to spend more time in the “mud” to know that we know 
what we know; to really think as Haraway states. Through this we may reach a way 
of unknowing, despite “not knowable knowing” being a slippery slope. I beleive art 
should not be made on the acceptance of ignorance, but I find most ecological art 
comes across as didactic one–liners. Problematically art also has the liberty of not 
having to be for anything—to subvert functions. All of this leaves me thinking that 
the possibility for “not knowable knowing” art must exist. So think we must; unknow 
we must. Think I must; unknow I must. 

I have no answers for this, but Haraway does provide a novel solution in the 
Cthulucene, a new possible epoch defined by “an understanding that to be a one 
at all, you must be a many, and it’s not a metaphor” (Haraway, 2014). Similar to 
Morton’s mesh this new possible epoch requires an entanglement with everything 
living and not, and a dissolution of the divisions of us versus everything else. I also 
believe that we get the planet that we make, but when we make a decision about 
what kind of world to live in, we must accept that we are also choosing what kind of 
human beings we will be. Haraway’s hope for a Cthulucene reworlding is summarized 
as “the activation of the cthulonic powers that is within our grasp as we collect up 
the trash of the Anthropocene and the exterminism of the Capitalocene, to [create] 
something that might possibly have a chance of ongoing” (Haraway, 2014).

As Irmgard Emmelhainz stated in the Anthropocene, “the spaces of publicity now 
occupy the spaces of hope” (Emmelhainz, 2015). I believe the Cthulucene could be 
one way to push back the occupation of hope. It gives me great energy for future 
work that I hope will dig deeper into this third space: the Mesh; the Cthulucene; the 
thinking; the unknowing.



Part III: Shooting into illusions from the future  |  45

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Part III: Shooting into illusions from the future



46  |  A little bit Anthroposcene

Sham–Real Shadows

A little bit Anthroposcene
“In my understanding, an artwork is fundamentally tied to its 
surroundings, to the present, to society, to cultural, and geographic 
determinants. It activates this dense texture, thereby examining 
the world in which we live—and by doing so, it can ultimately 
change the world.” 
—Olafur Eliasson, Art Now, Vol 4

The works discussed in Part III are awash in ideas of patterning the future via 
dystopian narratives. These works point toward the Aesopian arrow’s trajectory 
of willful self-harm that are inspired by personal stories, as well as the writings, 
artworks, and things that I have encountered that, despite their origins or 
intentions, in a contemporary context seem a little too Anthroposcene. The artwork 
I immediately think about when saying this is Paul Kos’ The Sound of Ice Melting 
(1970)—all of those microphones listening intently, and then amplifying the sounds 
of a block of ice melting in a gallery is such a beautiful metaphor for global warming, 
and the need to really imagine the ever-augmenting effect our current way of life 
is having on our collective futures. In a way my thinking aligns well with Eliasson 
evaluation of art as I see it connected to its and my present in different ways. These 
actants activate the mesh when they come in context with the Anthropocene in 
ways I would not otherwise consider them. Yet beyond heralding catastrophe the 
legacy of the Anthropocene is to leave permanent proof of human existence in the 
sediments of the Earth. Perhaps, in the distant future, a new intelligent life form will 
find this proof, and ponder it. There is a long and large list of possible surroundings, 
presents, societies, cultures and geographic determinants that will come in contact 
and alter the context of our world as we’ve made it today. Part of me sees this as 
poetically beautiful. But a thing isn’t beautiful because it lasts forever, and part of 
this cleaving from original context is shifting meanings in mixing bowl that is the 
Anthropocene. In this tension The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple project rose to 
explore hyperobjects as things that we destroy or create that will leave behind proof 
of our existence. To answer Eliasson’s proposition they examine the world while 
simultaneously distorting it.



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  47

Sham–Real Shadows

The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple



2. 3.

5.

6.

4.

7.

1.

48  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 18: Illustration showing The Anthropocene Temple including placement of The Relics, walls, curtain 
(denoted by dotted line), and light leaks. Note: The largest work, Sham–Real Shadows, is in the small place, 
while the smaller Relics are in the big space. This misplacement was calculated to craft a tension of scale 
that gives way to an open blackness with spots of brilliance.  

Shown: Layout of The Anthropocene Temple Exhibit:
1. Sham–Real Shadows, 

2. Relic I, 

3. Relic II, 

4. Relic III, 

5. Relic IV,

6. The Temple Prints (located on the walls),

7. Didactic panel.



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  Description  |  Materials  | Inside The Temple  |  49

Sham–Real Shadows

Description
The Anthropocene Temple (Figure 18) is an imagining of a future place for reverence 
(and confusion) from objects of an unknown(able) future looking back to today. Each 
piece is a discrete work, but together they compose a space for quiet contemplation, 
anxiety (and maybe some grotesque humour) around hyperobjects. As defined by 
Timothy Morton in his 2013 book of the same name, a hyperobject is a thing that is 
massively distributed throughout time and space relative to human life spans. These 
can range from Styrofoam to global warming. 

Materials
The Relics presented inside The Temple are small dioramas ensconced in infinity boxes, 
that are made from five sides of surveillance Plexiglas. The man-made materials used 
to craft the dioramas within include laser-cut paper, MDF, 3D printed sculptures, 
plastics, LED lighting, batteries, embroidery thread, and found materials. It’s truly 
a mixed bag of various ecological impacts with a heavy use on non-biodegradable 
hyperobjects (that will in turn become part the geologic proof of the geologic epoch, 
called Anthropocene), that must also be connected to a power grid of some kind.

The use of surveillance Plexiglas was critical in order to focus on the idea 
of patterning into the future. These patterns are single repeats of dioramas 
representing future landscapes deep in time that exist in an exterior space. The 
patterns inside The Relics represent to me a colonization of the future by the 
anxieties of today. The end result is an outward expanding repeat of reflections—a 
patterning—of the dioramas on the inside that goes on and on into indeterminate 
space that warps and darkens. This is a phenomenon called regressive infinity, and in 
its observation one finds a disorientation of depth, and scale. 

Inside The Temple
The first Relic that the audience generally encounters when entering The Temple 
proper is the dimmest and least visible before the eyes have adjusted to the dark 
of the space. In a usual clockwise procession, the second encountered Relic (also 
the a brightest) is landscape filled with menacing spikes and fog, made from 3D 
printed black plastic and fluffed wool. The title, Relic I: No esteemed deed; nothing 
of value here (Figure 19), refers to a United States Department of Energy’s proposed 



50  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  Description  |  Materials  | Inside The Temple

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 19: Relic I: No esteemed deed; nothing of value here. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, wool, 
paper, 3D printed sculpture, fixture, LED light bulb. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  Description  |  Materials  | Inside The Temple  |  51

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 20: Sketch I have made of “landscape of repulsion” from a mock of a conceptual landscape of 
concrete thorns to warn future generations to steer clear of New Mexico’s Yucca Mountain radioactive 
wastes burial ground as commissioned by the U.S. Department of Energy sometime in the early 1970s. 
Sourced from WIT’s World Ecology Report - Vol. 04, No. 5 - The Digest of Critical Environmental Information 
(WIT, 1992, 12 pages)

 

landscape installation of menacing spikes (Figure 20), and accompanying written 
warning (see Appendix A, Figure A-04), above a nuclear waste disposal site in order 
to warn distant civilizations to stay away; to “not settle here.” 

The third work encountered (and also the second brightest), Relic II: The woods 
between the worlds (Figure 21) is a much bleaker variant of its namesake. In CS Lewis’ 
The Magician’s Nephew, the original Woods are green lands filled with deciduous 
trees under perpetual sun. But it’s not the trees nor sun that is important, rather the 
magical ponds betwixt the trees that have the power to magically transport someone 
to a new, and different world. It is a little Anthroposcene: a world between worlds 
where one can literally choose what kind of world they would like to go to! Rendered 
via a forest of pillars on a plane of gasoline sheen, the ponds of magical water are 
replaced with mirrors. The mirror–pond is not there to reflect the viewers back at 
themselves, but to reflect this world back onto itself. This suggests an inception; of 



52  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  Similarity to other artworks

Sham–Real Shadows

being trapped inside human constructs—a world of indecision we need to escape 
from. It is an aesthetic place, but not somewhere I would like lingering for too long. 

Relic III: Mine #000 (Figure 22), is part homage to the photographs of mines by 
Edward Burtynsky, and a reference to the massive quantities of sediments that are 
moved by human forces each year—more than all natural forces combined. This 
work consists of a laser-cut paper sculpture of an open-pit mine in three tiers that 
go down into the plinth, and then opens up to a “plasticy” oil sheen interior. Copper 
string lights are being pulled out of the Earth by a miniature representation of a 
massive-scale industrial crane used in mining. This sits on a mirrored, ice–like surface 
being cut into by the mines as a repeat of indeterminate resource extraction.

The final Relic (also the first seen) focuses a massive flock of indefinite pink lawn 
flamingos spread out over an abstraction of a city grid lit at night. Titled Relic IV: 
Lawn (plasti–phoenicoptera phobia) (Figure 23) when viewed the flock of miniature 
lawn ornaments becomes a grotesque massing of the bizarre. It speaks to simulacra 
of nature, in a way similar to how I operated with Familiar Strangers, but more 
directly through it’s horror vacuii and for asking what could be more false than a 
plastic flock of pink flamingo on suburban lawns? 

Finally, as an assemblage these works speak to each other by literally (and 
metaphorically) reflecting off of each other in the dark of The Temple. Each Relic, in 
carrying the reflection its neighbouring Relic creates an effect akin to looking at a 
settlement on the horizon. This does not repeat inside the vitrines, but rather exists 
on the outside, suggesting to the audience that each of these scenarios is but one of 
many possibilities. 

Similarity to other artworks
Visually the works can be thought of as miniaturized suggestions of future worlds 
visually akin to Yayoi Kusama’s infinity rooms—works that specifically speaks to 
me as an optimistic gestures toward space travel. They are also related Guillaume 
Lachapelle’s work with infinity boxes. Although some of his works have the 
Anthroposcene vibe it does not directly address these concerns, but rather intends to 
be meditation on virtual space. I find his infinity boxes have became a major point of 
inspiration for the development of my Relics in materiality but not in concept.



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  53

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 21: Relic II: The wood between the worlds. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, paper, mirror, 3D 
printed sculpture, fixture, LED light bulb. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015



54  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 22: Relic III: Mine #000. Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, paper, mirrored paper, 3D printed 
sculpture, string LED lights. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  55

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 23: Relic IV: Lawn (plasti–phoenicopteriphobia). Laser-cut MDF, surveillance Plexiglas, paper, 
repainted dollhouse lawn ornaments, string LED lights. 25.4x25.4x25.4 cm. 2015.  
Note: 30-second exposure. Not indicative of actual brightness of the piece.



56  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  What was in the shadows

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure 24: The Temple Prints. Black ink, black rag paper, black thumbtacks Dimensions vary. 2015.

 

What was in the shadows
Any good temple hides secrets. The Temple Prints (Figure 24) are expressions (some 
incomplete, some just blank paper) that were made of black ink on black paper 
pinned to the wall. Like Peter Gee’s meditation on the 04 April 1968 assassination 
of Martin Luther King, the future is as the ink on that work: layers of more darkness 
devoid of hope where the future seems a fait accompli. Nearly invisible, the work 
provides another layer of reveal. When the eyes fully adjust the works are possible to 
see, but as all three materials (ink, paper, wall) are of the same flat black, it is easily 
missed. They consist of scribbled anxieties, statistics, and facts from the present that 
line the walls of this proposed future place. As a metaphor they ask “if we managed 
to crawl so far out of the darkness why couldn’t we bring along more light?”32 

32. This is a variation of a question posed in the SyFy channel’s 2015 television series The Expanse. 



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  On the purpose of art  |  57

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On the purpose of art
 
When I was young I recall my mother describing art thus: “Art is a hole punched 
through the fabric of time that attempts to unravel the whole thing”. In a time of 
hyperobjects—those things massively distributed throughout time and space—it’s 
hard to imagine how any work could punch through a bigger hole than an open pit 
mine, an acidic ocean, or a mass extinction event. If Mount Rushmore will carry visible 
faces at least seven million years into the future, what then could my art (or any 
art) possibly do to achieve an impact of equal measure? In the face of such massive 
beasts I shrink, pulling my work into defensive miniaturization.

Each of the interior Relics speak toward hyperobjects: Relic I to nuclear waste, 
Relic II to humanity, Relic III to landscapes, and Relic IV to plastics respectively. 
Indirectly, they speak to anxieties about the future, our long-term impact, and 
the evisceration of nature alongside its replacement with simulacra. To quote 
from Irmgard Emmelhainz’ essay Conditions of Visuality Under the Anthropocene 
and Images of the Anthropocene to Come, our “long-term geomorphic implications 
have become unintelligible” (Emmelhainz, 2015). We are lacking ground on which 
to stage the future and any typical way of conceiving the world no longer applies. 
The Anthropocene is less about lauding the coming of the Age of Man than 
acknowledging that the ways we think of our relationship to the world have allowed 
things to get wildly out of any sense of control. Even if we could abruptly place down 
our tools, the world will still end up being one shaped by man (Mackinnon, 2013). 
Inside The Temple can be found a few of the things that will continue to haunt us 
into whatever the future holds: Relic I’s inhospitable landscapes, Relic II’s indecision, 
Relic III’s destruction, and Relic IV’s distance from nature. 

In a 2008 interview included in the exhibition catalogue for Mythologies in the Making 
Anish Kapoor stated “… artists don’t make objects, artists make mythologies, and it’s 
through the mythologies that we read the object” (Kapoor, 2008). In regard to time, 
these dioramas are future places not-yet-made, seen as Relics in a future temple 
whose only congregants are people from today. Everything here is out of time, with 
hyperobjects having too much, and us having too little. It may prove a mistake to 
so carelessly let Aesopian feathers drop, but that no longer matters as the changes 
we have made manifest can no longer be undone.33 Our modern world exists in a 
new era of our making, an Anthropocene that announces the collapse of the future 
through “slow fragmentation towards primitivism, perpetual crisis, and planetary 
ecological collapse” (Emmelhainz, 2015). This is a prime landscape to answer Kapoor’s 
call by making ever more mythologies. 

33. Current global warming will continue unaided for at least 500 more years. 24,100 years is the half-life of plutonium-139. (Morton, 
Hyperobjects, 2013)



58  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  Green modernism  |  The sublime

Sham–Real Shadows

Green modernism
The reflection-based patterning speaks to this indeterminateness through the 
effect of regressive infinity but isn’t just a parlour-trick. The use of mirrors was 
important to reference the enlargement of controlled space to something that 
becomes immeasurably vast. This is a direct foreshadowing of green modernism as 
a contemporary real world patterning of the Earth. The green modernist movement 
is an aggrandizement of nature-as-garden to be churned out as template across the 
globe—patterning-cum-ecumenoplis34. It is the opposite of Haraway’s Cthulucene 
for its goal is not to think, but to act via control. Gardening the world carries with 
it the weight of deciding what and who, lives and dies. This is a world where the 
Capitalocene drives the future. It is a fantasy that implores its adherents to stay the 
course and let technology solve all of our problems. Technology will help, but only 
we can save us, and that means a radical rethinking of the way things are, before 
we can think through how they can be. These Relics set up and become my own 
Anthropocene mythologies to counter radical and dangerous delusions like these 
that are already in the mix.35

The sublime
In his introductory essay to The Sublime editor Simon Morley introduces seven major 
categories of the sublime, as they exist in art today. Those are The Unrepresentable, 
Transcendence, Nature, Terror, The Uncanny, and Altered States. Using this book 
as a tool for analysis the works of The Temple seem to fall most snugly in the first 
category, while aligning to Edmund Burke’s36 notion of the sublime as “a destabilizing 
force”, and Immanuel Kant’s concept of the sublime “as revealing a reality that is 
fundamentally indeterminate” (Morley, 2010, 19–20). Morely’s collection of disparate 
writings about the sublime have come to greatly influence my own understanding 
of this nebulous concept, but not as much as the included writing and analysis of 
French philospher Jean-François Lyotard.

In his 1988 essay, The Sublime and the Avant-Garde, Lyotard declares that it is 
essential to finding the feeling of the sublime as being not of the here-and-now, 
but that it is “essential … that it alludes to something which can not be shown, or 
presented…” (Morley, 2010, 27). This aligns to the longer-term effects of hyperobjects 

34. This concept is not dissimilar from the massive capital planet Trantor in Issac Asimov’s Foundation Series (1942–1993), Coruscant in George 
Lucas’ Star Wars (1977–) series, or Ores in The Wachowskis Jupiter Ascending (2015).
35. During the ten days of installation not all interpretations of The Temple and The Relics brought forth ideas of the Anthropocene but 
mythologies, and “toxic fairytales” were common readings that although not exact are on par with what I hoped the audience would take away 
from the work. 
36. “The best-known theory published in Britain is Edmund Burke’s A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and 
Beautiful (1757). Burke’s definition of the sublime focuses on such terms as darkness, obscurity, privation, vastness, magnificence, loudness and 
suddenness, and that our reaction is defined by a kind of pleasurable terror.” (“Art and the Sublime”, 2015)



The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  The sublime  |  59

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as things that are so massively distributed in time and space relative to humanity 
that we cannot ever truly know them, and thus never truly capture them. The 
indeterminate space inside The Relics is that thing which can’t be shown, while the 
darkness and stillness of The Temple echoes the indeterminate space inside the 
vitrines. It is within this context that the audience’s inability to interact with The 
Relics directly speaks to Lyotard’s continuation of thought that the sublime exists 
in places where “the possibility of nothing happening” is associated with anxieties 
around existence, and the unconscious (Morley, 2010, 29). In the same essay Lyotard 
declares that the sublime occurs in a moment when the aesthetic beauty is disrupted 
by something else (Morley, 2010, 33). He then goes on to write “Art does not 
imitate nature, it creates a world apart, eine Zwischenwelt, as Paul Klee will say; eine 
Nebenwelt, one might say in the which the monstrous and the formless have their 
rights because they can be sublime” (Morley, 2010, 33). In the past the monstrous 
sublime was used to craft daunting landscapes of the “new world”. In these the 
natural world is usually presented as monstrous and insurmountable, but American 
landscapes of the time balance this sublime via paths through the obstacles (river, 
canyon, footpath, or valley). That allows these landscapes to read as propaganda 
for colonization—an invitation to conquer, and to stamp the patterning of Western 
civilization on a supposedly uninhabited and untamed land. These, we know, were 
mythologies captured in art, and like them my Relics present a future of ramped up 
colonialism where the future landscapes are now colonized by fear, anxiety, and 
dystopia—all byproducts of the Capitalocene. 

Furthermore this presentation of indeterminate space in The Relics are disturbing, 
and provoking in a generative way that appears to match Longinus’ stance on the 
sublime as assessed by Lyotard. Longinus could not write about the sublime in a 
traditional intellectual way indicative of his time (techne rhetorike) but in his inability 
to pin it down within a framework of rational rhetoric he does state: “il y a à partir 
d’elle beaucoup de réflexion [from the sublime springs a lot of reflection]” (Morley, 
2010, 31). Perhaps within these works the disturbance that forces reflection comes 
from their paradoxes—high degree of aesthetic polish (jewel like) contrasted against 
their conceptual framework (Anthropocene) and the phenomenology of the space 
(dark, quiet, a little foreboding). 

In terms of how my work should read I do not want The Temple to require an 
intimate knowledge of the specific points of reference, but rather to evoke feeling 
first, followed by thinking, and hopefully further exploration by the audience. 
Perhaps from my unconscious I created these mythologized landscapes as a betrayal 
to the complexity and specificity of scientific knowledge that Thomas Struth’s 
photography of massive human constructions require37, and that are described 
by Benjamin Buchloh as depicting the “technological sublime”. Yet perhaps more 
accurately it was an unconscious desire to create work that functioned as narrative 
rather than a lecture.38 Jacques Derrida, when summarizing G. W. F. Hegel in his 1978 
essay Parergon said “... the sublime is not in nature but only in ourselves…” (Morley, 

37. Such as his Tokamak Asdek Upgrade Interior 2 (2009).
38. A generous way of describing the installation from fellow graduate student Troy Gronsdahl.  



60  |  The Relics of the Anthropocene Temple  |  The sublime

Sham–Real Shadows

2010, 44) and that is perhaps the key to the feeling of the sublime in The Temple. 
I believe that a general conscious or subconscious understanding of the scale of 
damage we (as a species) are having on the mesh, alongside the alien and alienating 
ways we interact with and outside it is already present in the world. I would go so 
far as to argue that it is obvious, even if we do not wish to admit it. That is why the 
works lean toward eine Zwischenwelt, or a cause for réflexion, and thus function as a 
destabilization force (of Anthropocene mythologies) in this world we think we know.

Barbara Freeman in her 1995 article The Feminine Sublime explains Lyotard’s ideas 
on the sublime further: “In the formulation of Jean-François Lyotard, for example, 
the sublime is not the presentation of the unpresentable, but the presentation of 
the fact that the unpresentable exists” (Morley, 2010, 65). There is a great deal of 
anxiety around the Anthropocene because when accessing the current state of 
things, and making predictions, we cannot possibly know the fate of humanity, nor 
any living or nonliving thing. The future is then unknowable, but the beauty and 
aesthetic qualities of The Relics very much are. To summarize Philip Shaw’s take on 
the sublime, the pleasure from viewing the work comes from the ability to avoid—to 
not be inside—the “signifier for the deadly encounter with the Thing” (Morley, 2010, 
54). Inside The Temple that “Thing” is the Anthropocene—the end of this worlding as 
we now know it—and because of their jewel like aesthetics and whimsical scale The 
Relics safely ensnare these deadly mythologies at a comfortable distance from the 
viewer, thus making room for the sublime inside the installation. 



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The future as not presentable, art as salve



62  |  Are there ways to explore?

Sham–Real Shadows

Are there ways to explore?
My thesis line of inquiry has been, “are there ways to explore the ideological 
underpinnings and ramifications of the Anthropocene?” For the works in The Temple 
I believe the answer to be yes as the work brought forward the notions of “toxic 
fairytales” and Burkeian, and Kantian sublime to give answers for the things we 
cannot know. The Anthropocene has been presented as a synonym for Armageddon, 
and for good reasons as the subject matter is dark, and difficult to pin down without 
falling into areas of hope or despair. I do not consider myself an optimist, nor a 
pessimist, but rather as an activist that in my own way is fostering dialogue and 
thinking around issues that are important to not only me, but to all things inside the 
mesh. We have caused this current state of affairs, and we cannot undo it, so we 
must navigate a new world with a new climate that is in our own making, and in the 
eye of the storm no one can truly see. The past is factitious ideology and, the future 
is unknowable mythology, and both are poisoning the present. So if true nature 
cannot be replicated and presented, and the future is unknowable, what I produce 
are not glimpses forward or backward, but salves for things or ways of thinking I 
can’t escape. I do not know how they could be otherwise yet, but there is still time 
for me to evolve, for as Donna Haraway surmises the state of our contemporary 
situation, “the sky has not fallen. Not yet.” (Haraway, 2014) and as Jonathon Crary 
proposes there is activism even in daring to imagine a “world without billionaires”.  



Bibliography  |  63

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Bibliography



64  |  Bibliography

Sham–Real Shadows

Anderson, D. R. ‘The Critical Importance of Sustainability Risk Management.’ Risk 
Management 53.4 (2006): n. pag. Print.

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“Art and the Sublime.” Art gallery. Tate Modern. N.p., 17 Aug. 2015. Web.

Azzarito, Amy. ‘Past & Present: The History of Toile de Jouy.’ Design*Sponge. N.p., 
2009. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

‘Beyond the Trees: Wallpapers in Dialogue with Emily Carr.’ Art gallery. Vancouver 
Art Gallery. N.p., 25 Apr. 2015. Web. 3 Sept. 2015.

Blackley, Lachlan. Wallpaper. London, England: Laurence King, 2006. Print.

Boehnert, Joanna. ‘Design versus the Design Industry.’ Centre for Science and 
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Crary, Jonathan. 24/7: Late Capitalism and the End of Sleep. Verso, 2013. Print.
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architecture & design magazine. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

Emmelhainz, Irmgard. “Conditions of Visuality Under the Anthropocene and Images 
of the Anthropocene to Come.” e-flux 63 (2015): n. pag. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

Forbush, Edward Howe. Birds of America. Garden City Publishing Company, 1917. 
Print.

Franke, Anselm. Animisn. New York, NY: Stenberg Press, 2010. Print.
 
---. The Whole Earth: California and the Disappearence of the Outside. New York, NY: 
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Greysmith, Brenda. Wallpaper. London, England: Studio Vista, 1976. Print.

Habermas, Jürgen. The Theory of Communicative Action. Beacon Press, 1985. Print.
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Trouble.” Anthropocene: Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet. Santa Cruz, California. 
2014. Lecture.

“Hearts and Arrows | Centre A.” N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.



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‘Imagery, Imagination, Earth.’ ImaGeo. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Kapoor, Anish. Anish Kapoor In Conversation with Nicholas Baume. 2008.

Klingan, Katrin et al. The Textures of the Anthropocene: Grain. Vol. 1. The MIT Press, 
2014. Print. 3 vols.

---. The Textures of the Anthropocene: Vapor. Vol. 2. Cambridge, MA, and London, 
England: The MIT Press, 2014. Print. 3 vols.

Mackinnon, J.B. The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, As It Could Be. 
Random House Canada, 2013. Print.

Mooallem, Jon: The Strange Story of the Teddy Bear and What It Reveals. N.p., 2014. 
Film.

Morley, Simon. The Sublime. New York, NY: The MIT Press, 2010. Print.
Morton, Timothy. Ecology Without Nature. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard 
University Press, 2007. Print.

---. Hyperobjects. Univ Of Minnesota Press, 2013. Print.

---. The Ecological Thought. Boston, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2012. Print.

Parry, Joseph et al. Art and Phenomenology. Routledge, 2011. Print.

Portanova, Joseph. ‘Porcelain, The Willow Pattern, and Chinoiserie.’ New York 
University. N.p., 2013. Web.

Rome, Susan. ‘Marianne Nicolson.’ Art Gallery. Around the Gallery in 80 Artworks. 
N.p., 23 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.

“Studio Olafur Eliasson.” N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2015.

Teynac, Françoise. Wallpaper, a History. New York City, New York: Rizzoli, 1982. Print.

“The Anthropocene Project. A Report.” HKW. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Sept. 2015.

‘The Ecological Thought: A Reply to a Critic.’ Larval Subjects. N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Dec. 
2015.

‘The History of the Paisley Symbol and Paisley Pattern.’ N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.

Thibaut-Pomerantz, Carolle. Wallpaper A History of Style and Trends. Paris, France: 
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Turkel, Sherry. Evocative Objects. MIT Press, 2007. Print.

Victoria and Albert Museum, Online Museum. “William Morris.” N.p., 17 June 2011. 
Web. 6 Apr. 2014.

Virilio, Paul. The Aesthetics of Disappearance. Semiotextet, 1991. Print.

Weisman, Alan. The World Without Us. New York: Thomas Dunne Books/St. Martin’s 
Press, 2007. Print.

“Why the Passenger Pigeon Went Extinct.” Audubon. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Dec. 2015.

Zerefos, C. S. et al. “Atmospheric Effects of Volcanic Eruptions as Seen by Famous 
Artists and Depicted in Their Paintings.” 2 Aug. 2007: n. pag. Print.

‘Zigzags on a Shell From Java Are the Oldest Human Engravings.’ Smithsonian. N.p., 
n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.



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Appendix A: Other images



68  |  Appendix A: Other images

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Figure A-01: Kristin Schoppi. Papered Wall #6. 8 artichoke leaves, 85 red cabbages, 4 asparagus, 4 red 
peppers, 9 beets, 1952 sprouts, 1 cauliflower, 7 sui choy, 10 cherry tomatoes, 15 250 staples, 4 coriander, 1952 
pins, 12 garlic cloves, 47 nails, 8 green beans, 9 screws, 5 green onions, 135 cm of wire, 36 mung beans. 1993. 
(Included with permission from the artist.) 



Appendix A: Other images  |  69

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Figure A-02: DETAIL. Kristin Schoppi. Papered Wall #6. 8 artichoke leaves, 85 red cabbages, 4 asparagus, 4 
red peppers, 9 beets, 1952 sprouts, 1 cauliflower, 7 sui choy, 10 cherry tomatoes, 15 250 staples, 4 coriander, 
1952 pins, 12 garlic cloves, 47 nails, 8 green beans, 9 screws, 5 green onions, 135 cm of wire, 36 mung beans. 
1993. (Included with permission from the artist.) 



70  |  Appendix A: Other images

Sham–Real Shadows

Figure A-03: Sketch I have made from a photo-image of a conceptual building proposal from Dionisio 
González series Dauphin Island.



Appendix A: Other images  |  71

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Figure A-04: The text that is to accompany the “landscape of repulsion”. Sourced from ‘This Place Is Not a 
Place of Honor.’ N.p., n.d. Web. 20 October. 2014.



72  |  Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals

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Appendix B



Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals  |  73

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Table 01
Mapping wallpaper designs against historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
environment, society, and economy during the Anthropocene over a 229 year period 
since the start of the Industrial Revolution (the date I’ve chosen for the beginning of 
the Anthropocene proper). This is done to remain consistent with the Three Legged 
Stool of Sustainability’s categories of Planet, People, and Profits (Anderson, 2006). 
The corresponding symbols represent the need to multiple the environment (⊗), 
to add human society into the equation (⊕), and need for limitations on economic 
activities at the expense of the first two (∅). I have done my best to list events I 
have found relevant to researching the Anthropocene, or that have had a profound 
impact on the way I see the world personally, however given the breadth and depth 
of this survey there will be need for future expansion. I have limited each item to one 
category—the principle category for that group—although each may be applicable to 
more than one, or all three categories.

It is important to note that this table does not indicate a direct correlation, but it 
does establish some convincing inferences (for my research and work) between the 
motifs, styles, or subject matters that were popular in the years mapped, and against 
the major events presented.



74  |  Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals

Sham–Real Shadows

Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

01
1784

–
1793

Les Metamorphoses d’Ovide 
Unknown
1785

Trompe-l’œil neoclassical wall repeat 
with individual panels illustrating 
Ovid’s Metamorphosis including the 
creation myths of Ancient Rome. 
Nature is relegated to background, 
myth, and a peculiar border of roses 
that occurs around the five panels 
of each section between a set of 
pillars. Everything is grey, or gold 
except these roses and a repeat of 
sashes along the upper perimetre. 
Presents view of nature as source 
for mythology.

⊕ 1784 (circa) Romantic movement begins
∅ 1785 Coal gas first used for lighting
∅ 1787 Colonization of Australia begins (last continent of 
European colonization)
∅ 1787 First steam ship is patented
⊕ 1789 French Revolution begins
∅ 1792 Stock exchange exclusivity begins (Wall Street 
stockbroker insider trading pack signed)
⊕ 1791 Haitian Revolution begins (only successful slave 
revolt ever)
⊕ 1792 French Revolutionary Wars begin

Interval 01: 
creationism by any other name 
smells the same

02
1794

–
1803

Chinoise
Unknown
1797

Two repeating panels of trees, birds, 
and aviaries bordered by a repeat 
of what looks like corn. Left panel 
features a naturalist illustration of 
a grey crane and a small tree; right 
panel features several birds and 
an aviary in the distance. Presents 
a view of nature as source for 
vicarious knowledge and collection.

⊕ 1795 United indigenous Kingdom of Hawaii founded 
⊗ 1796 Extinction established as fact
⊕ 1798 Neoclasscism ends
⊗ 1798 Essay on the Principles of Population published
⊗ 1799 First conservation law
⊗ 1802 Human population one billion
⊕ 1802 First anti-child labour laws
⊕ 1803 Napoleonic Wars begin
∅ 1803 Louisiana Purchase

Interval 02: 
there is always more somewhere 
else

03
1804–
1813

Jardins de Bagetelle
Joseph Dufour
1804

A grande paramique designed 
to cover all the walls of a room. 
Graphic illustration of neoclassical 
architecture and one East Asian 
styled outbuilding set in a French 
garden. A variety of wealthy patrons 
are in the garden. The Château de 
Bagatelle was a pleasure ground for 
the French aristocracy and was used 
only occasionally when hunting in 
the adjacent woods—essentially a 
maison de plaisance. Presents a view 
of nature as resource for pleasure. 

∅ 1804 First locomotive
∅ 1804 Lewis and Clark expedition begins
⊕ 1807 British slave trade ends
∅ 1807 First passenger railway
⊗ 1808 Coal first burned for residential heat
⊗ 1808 Unknown volcanic eruption lowers global 
temperatures for at least ten years
⊕ 1810 Spanish colonial revolts begin
⊕ 1811 Luddite movement formed
∅ 1812 The Frame Breaking Act makes machine breaking 
punishable by death
⊗ 1813 World’s first nature preserve

Interval 03: 
send me away to where the 
weight of the world we have 
failed can not touch me

04
1814

–
1823

Les Chasses de Campiegne
Carle Vernet
1815

A two panelled illustration repeat 
of an idyllic American South 
hunt respite with finely dressed 
gentlemen, horses, hounds, lower 
class workers being interrupted 
while going about their day, and 
vistas of far off ships and towns. 
Was original installed in a Kentucky 
plantation home. Presents a view 
of nature as resource for class 
differentiation.

∅ 1814 First mass-produced machine (machine made by a 
machine)
⊗ 1815 Mount Tamboro erupts and drastically effects global 
weather and temperatures
⊕ 1816 "Year Without A Summer"
∅ 1817 Erie Canal construction begins
⊕ 1817 First cholera epidemic
∅ 1817 Term comparative advantage coined (capitalism 
benefits the weak as well as the strong)
∅ 1818 British East India Company quells remaining Indian 
colonial resistance
∅ 1819 First steam ship crosses Atlantic
⊗ 1821 World’s first geographic society founded
∅ 1821 First adoption of gold standard

Interval 04:
here, where we starve, we 
can see the workings of our 
comparative advantage

05
1824

–
1833

Famous Hunts
Zuber
1831

A grande paramique illustration of 
a somber hunt. Features well-to-do 
pleasure hunters along side hounds 
along a creek between two fields 
populated with simple peasants. 
Two trees, and a far off castle 
dominate the image but not as 
much as the curious sky. In this 
version near three quarters of the 
image area is dominated by a white 
horizon to blue-sky gradient. It 
is a graphic and distinctive piece 
compared to others of its interval. 
Presents a view of nature as 
resource for pleasure.

⊕ 1824 Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to 
Animals is founded
∅ 1825 First public railway
∅ 1825 First stock market crash
⊕ 1826 First true photograph
∅ 1828 First electric motor
⊗ 1828 Vitalism’s first major disaccreditation (élan vital; 
non-living and living entities are fundamentally different 
because of souls)
∅ 1829 Genocide of the Beothuk people complete with 
death of Shanawdithit
∅ 1829 Hot blast industrial process invented
∅ 1830 Indian Removal Act (US)
∅ 1832 First world travel guide published
⊕ 1833 First Factory Act regulates factory working 
conditions

Interval 05:
the skies are alive with sounds 
muffled by the cries of the dying



Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals  |  75

Sham–Real Shadows

Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

06
1834

–
1843

Scenes of North America
Zuber et Cie
1834

A large A grande paramique 
illustration of North American 
natural landmarks such as Niagara 
Falls. The sublimity of the natural 
landscape’s imposing features is 
mitigated by insertion of modern 
transportation devices such as 
steam ships and stagecoaches, and 
representation of tourism. It also 
features a slew of ethic stereotypes 
while curiously portrayed as 
well-to-do. Presents a view of 
nature as obedient, and pleasurably 
conquerable over being sublime. 

∅ 1834 Industrial capitalism as social system begins
⊕ 1834 Slavery abolished in British Empire
∅ 1835 English becomes only official language of India
∅ 1837 Telegraph patented
⊗ 1837 Woodman Save That Tree written (first 
environmentalist song)
∅ 1838 Trail of Tears begins
∅ 1839 First Opium War begins, and Hong Kong is seized
∅ 1839 Rubber is vulcanized
∅ 1839 Electricity is clarified
∅ 1840 First national claims over Antarctic made
∅ 1840 The first tea plantations established in India
∅ 1842 First state managed forest

Interval 06:
whose glory and renown are 
spread o’er land and sea

07
1844

–
1853

Untitled
Owen Jones
1850

A diagonal repeat of a manicured 
plant–like motif. Overall framing 
device within the repeat is evocative 
of a shield repeat with a concave 
cone shape at its top. The curled 
forms and round ball finials border 
and fall into this shape. Presents 
a view of nature as source for 
obviously man-made, rationalized  
geometric repeat that could be 
described as wholly abstract—a 
celebration of design over nature 
(Figure 07). 

⊗ 1844 Great Auk extinct
∅ 1844 First central banking
⊗ 1844 Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation published 
(early evolutionary and transmutation theories written in 
accessible manner)
⊕ 1845 The Great Irish Famine begins
⊕ 1845 Term Manifest Destiny is coined
⊕ 1847 The Vegetarian Society formed
⊕ 1848 The Communist Manifesto published
⊕ 1848 Realism movement begins
∅ 1851 Crystal Palace Exhibition (first large scale exhibition 
of industrially made products)
∅ 1852 First multi-city trip through the air
∅ 1853 World’s first public aquarium

Interval 07:
that which is beautiful is 
never true

08
1854

–
1863

Lucullus
Auguste Clésinger
1855

Trompe-l’œil illustrative multi-panel 
repeat evocative of a neoclassical 
frieze. There are a range of 
foreground forms that fade in a 
series of flat tones into the darkness 
of the implied narrow interior space 
between the top and the bottom of 
the repeat. Figures and forms in the 
piece include geese, hounds, baskets 
of food, farming paraphernalia and 
cherubs. Presents a view of nature 
as mythologized fancy. It is also a 
celebration of design over nature 
for it’s graphic and blatant colour 
separations and depiction of nature 
as provision of the gods to man 
(Figure 05).

∅ 1854 The US “Black Ships” force Japan to open its borders 
to trade
∅ 1856 Second Opium War begins
∅ 1857 British take over of Mughal territory complete
⊕ 1857 Symbolism movement begins
∅ 1858 Territory of the British East Indian Company is 
annexed into the Empire proper
⊗ 1859 The Carrington Event (last large electrical disruption 
from the sun
⊗ 1859 On the Origin of Species published (Theory of 
Evolution within)
⊗ 1859 Greenhouse effect explained
⊗ 1860 Term pollution first used to describe environmental 
contamination
∅ 1862 Parkesine patented (first man-made plastic)
⊗ 1863 First underground urban railway opens
⊗ 1863 Alkali Acts (first air pollution laws)

Interval 08:
 four years before, and 156 after 
the origins of the species and 
we’re still here

09
1864

–
1873

Acanthus
William Morris
1875

A striking rework of a classical 
motif. The repeat is on an organic, 
non-rectilinear frame, while the 
interior designs appear to follow 
an arrangement of consecutive 
circle shapes that read as a chain of 
number 8s or an infinite repeat of 
the infinity symbol (∞). The work 
is illustrative and bends the source 
material (acanthus leaves) into a 
striking geometry that speaks more 
to a man-made nature than too 
any attempt at realism whilst still 
managing to capture something of 
the original plant. Presents a view of 
nature as something that should be 
dominated, and controlled by man, 
while simultaneously respecting it 
for its innate beauty (Figure 08).

∅ 1864 The Chicago Board of Trade approves trading of 
“futures”
⊗ 1864 Man and Nature published (first book to examine 
man’s effects on nature)
⊕ 1865 Impressionism movement begins
⊗ 1865 Principles for genetics established
⊕ 1865 American slavery ends
∅ 1865 First typewriter invented
⊗ 1865 Periodic Table of the Elements published
⊗ 1866 Term ecology coined
∅ 1866 First transatlantic telegraph cable laid
⊕ 1867 Dominion of Canada created
∅ 1869 First North American transcontinental railway
∅ 1869 Suez Canal opens
⊗ 1869 Sea Birds Preservation Act (world’s first nature 
protection law)
∅ 1870 Standard Oil founded
⊕ 1871 England legalizes trade unions
⊗ 1872 World’s first national park established
⊗ 1872 First of Desirability of establishing a “Close-time” for 
the preservation of indigenous animals series published
⊗ 1873 Term Anthropozoic era proposed (precursor to 
Anthropocene)

Interval 09: 
life is an act of consumption, 
jupiter



Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

10
1874

–
1883

Untitled (irises)
CFA Voysey
1880

A cartoonish depiction of irises and 
bull rushes on the banks of a river or 
pond. Overall structure is indicative 
of typical curve–peaked church 
windows. Presents a view of nature 
as simplified, dull, and passive—one 
that conforms to simple geometry 
and line work over any attempt to 
represent the actual.

∅ 1874 First telephone patented
⊗ 1875 Term biosphere coined
∅ 1877 Queen Victoria proclaimed Empress of India
∅ 1877 Phonograph invented
∅ 1878 Northern Sea Route successfully navigated
⊗ 1879 Term Psychozoic proposed (precursor to 
Anthropocene)
∅ 1879 Light bulb patented
∅ 1879 Standard time proposed
∅ 1883 Earliest industrial intellectual property treaty signed
⊗ 1883 Krakatau eruption
⊗ 1883 First solar cell invented

Interval 10: 
the world keeps moving on 
but in my repetition i steal 
more time

11
1884

–
1893

Seahorses
CFA Voysey
1887

A striking but simplistic, cartoonish 
line drawing illustration of ocean 
waves and sea horses. The main 
compositional structure consists of 
repetitive oval shapes within which 
two sea horses either look away or 
towards each other. Presents a view 
of nature as static—that simulacrum 
as signpost is sufficient to speak 
to nature. 

∅ 1884 The Berlin Conference on colonization of Africa and 
the regulation of New Imperialism
⊕ 1885 Post–Impressionism movement begins
∅ 1885 First automobile patented
∅ 1885 Dry cell battery invented
∅ 1886 Coca-Cola invented
⊕ 1886 First eight hour workday law
∅ 1887 First working wind turbine
∅ 1887 Gramophone is patented
⊗ 1898 National Geographic Society founded 
∅ 1889 L’Exposition Universelle (largest exhibition of 
industrially made products)
⊕ 1890 Art Nouveau movement begins
∅ 1890 First successful airplane flight
∅ 1890 End of the American Frontier (colonization of US 
controlled North America declared complete)
⊗ 1892 Sierra Club founded
∅ 1893 US annexation of Kingdom of Hawaii
⊕ 1893 Women’s suffrage first granted

Interval 11:
this is how we dance under 
waves you can not see

12
1894

–
1903

Flamingoes
Otto Eckman
1898

Three part panel repeat. Top panel is 
a repeat of a flamingo in flight with 
a vibrant sky above and sea below. 
Middle panel is a pattern repeat 
of a flock of flamingoes crafting a 
dense impenetrable wall—you can 
not see past them and may forms 
overlap and confuse on top of 
each other. Bottom panel features 
a row of frogs underwater with 
foliage between and above them. 
Although illustrative over realist—
and somewhat goofy in mood—the 
design presents a nature that is 
interdependent, dense, and alive, 
but ultimately merely entertaining 
for us to look at. 

⊗ 1895 The term greenhouse effect coined
⊗ 1896 CO2 emissions first linked to climate change
⊗ 1896 Radioactivity discovered
⊗ 1898 Study of Ecological succession pioneered 
⊗ 1898 The Coal Smoke Abatement Society formed (first 
environmental NGO)
∅ 1899 First successful transatlantic radio signal
⊕ 1901 Expressionism, and Fauvism movements begin
∅ 1901 US Steel first billion dollar company 
∅ 1902 First wireless telephone
∅ 1902 First artificial climate machine patented (air-
conditioner)

Interval 12:
all of us is present for your 
infinite and indefinite pleasure

13
1904

–
1913

Whoot
CFA Voysey
1904

Another strong illustrative graphic 
repeat of birds that works on a 
simple mirror reflection repeat 
of a tall skinning rectangle 
composition. The design presents 
foliage and owls alongside newly 
hatched offspring—a parliament 
of repetition. Presents a life cycle 
of an animal in a clear way, but 
in a simple repeat that creates a 
textured surface from a distance 
and abundance up close. Presents a 
view of nature and the cycle of life 
as infinite and indefinite. 

∅ 1904 Study of geopolitics coined 
∅ 1904 Standard Oil controls 91% of US oil production
∅ 1904 Trans-Siberian Railway opens
∅ 1905 The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism 
published (justifies Capitalism as Calvinist)
⊗ 1905 The term smog coined
⊕ 1907 Cubism movement begins
∅ 1908 Model T released for sale
∅ 1909 Bakelite invented
⊕ 1909 Futurism movement begins
⊗ 1911 Newfoundland Wolf extinct
∅ 1913 The assembly line invented

Interval 13:
a parliament of effective 
distances



Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

14
1914

–
1923

Les Sonsonnets
Paul Marrot
1921

A simplistic line drawing pattern 
illustrating starlings and branches 
bent to a spiral shape. The pattern 
consists of a single drawing with a 
mirrored twin slightly below it and 
to the right to craft the illusion of 
one branch with two twigs. The 
birds are supplied with food in the 
form of berries that grow on the 
branches. This presents an ideal of 
nature as plentiful and able to take 
care of itself. 

⊗ 1914 American passenger pigeon is declared extinct 
(populist proof of extinction) 
∅ 1914 Panama Canal opens
⊕ 1914 World War I begins
⊗ 1915 The Ecological Society of America is founded
⊕ 1916 Easter Uprising—beginnings of decolonization of 
Europe
⊗ 1916 Plant Sucession published (proposed that landscapes 
evolve toward perfection and that nature can repair itself)
⊕ 1916 Technicolor invented
⊕ 1917 Surrealism, Dada, and De Stijl movements begin
⊕ 1917 October Revolution
⊕ 1917 First time a nation depended primarily on food 
imports to feed its citizens
⊕ 1919 Treaty of Versailles ends WWI and creates many 
new European nations carved from multi-ethnic continental 
empires
⊗ 1920 British cod fishery collapse
⊗ 1922 Terms Anthropogene and Noosphere coined 
(precursors to Anthropocene)
⊗ 1922 Term environmentalism coined

Interval 14:
despite the extinction of my 
brethren i will return orderly 
and predictable

15
1924

–
1933

Unknown (banana leaves)
Anonymous
19251

A machined geometric repeat of 
highly aesthetic banana leaves.39 
The pattern is made of a single leaf 
constructed from a half oval (cut 
along the horizontal horizon) and 
a concave stem that is cut out of 
the void from the repeating half 
oval form. The interior of each 
leaf is a vertically extending series 
of architectonic lines as stand-ins 
for the veins and stem of the 
leaf. Presents a wholly machined, 
simulacrum of nature indicative 
of an era that highly celebrated 
technological advancement and 
continued large scale colonization 
between the World Wars. 

⊕ 1925 Art Déco and Surrealist movements begin
⊕ 1925 Scopes Trial on teaching of evolution versus 
creationism in US public schools
∅ 1925 Television invented
∅ 1925 Process for frozen food invented
∅ 1927 First “Talkie” film
⊕ 1929 Abstract Expressionism begins
∅ 1929 Black Tuesday (stock market crash)
∅ 1929 Great Depression begins
⊗ 1930 The Great Dust Bowl begins
⊕ 1930 Socialist Realism begins
⊕ 1933 Nazis came to power federally in Germany

Interval 15: 
these will never be banana 
leaves

16
1934

–
1943

Chamilles
René Gabriel
1936

A cut paper style illustration of 
diagonally repeating tree branches 
and love birds. Presents a whimsical, 
crafty, colloquial representation 
of nature I read as idyllic idealism 
versus the reality that most 
lovebirds the purchasers of this 
wallpaper will encounter will be in 
cages in residential settings.

⊗ 1935 Term ecosystem coined
⊗ 1935 Term Dauerwald coined (“perpetual forest” meaning 
eternal; related to forest management)
⊗ 1936 Tasmanian Tiger extinct
∅ 1936 The General Theory of Employment, Interest and 
Money published
∅ 1936 Keynesian Economics Theory published
⊕ 1939 World War II begins
⊕ 1942 The Manhattan Project begins
⊗ 1943 First big smog attributed to automobiles

Interval 16:
nothing is beautiful because 
it lasts

17
1944

–
1953

The Parakeet and the 
Mermaid
Henri Matisse
1952

A discombobulated assemblage 
of various shapes indicative of 
seaweed, apples arranged in an 
energized scattering that gets ever 
more dense as they encroach on to 
a crude silhouette of a mermaid on 
the right and a parakeet on the left. 
The paper is a direct representation 
of Matisse’s “cut outs” work of the 
same name and of the same year. 
Presents a fantastical, imagined 
world of plenty that is mythological 
and impossible—an acerbic take on 
impossible views of nature.40

∅ 1944 International Monetary Found founded
⊕ 1944 First nuclear bomb test
⊕ 1945 First nuclear bomb use
⊕ 1945 Rapid political decolonization begins
⊕ 1945 WWII in Europe ends
⊕ 1946 WWII in Asia ends
⊕ 1946 Great Acceleration begins
∅ 1947 hydraulic fracturing process invented
⊗ 1947 Term evolutionary synthesis clarified (consensus on 
how evolution proceeds)
⊕ 1948 United Nations founded
⊗ 1949 Term desertification coined
⊗ 1949 A Sand County Almanc published (argues for land 
ethic—responsible relationship between humans and 
nature)
⊕ 1952 Pop Art movement begins
⊗ 1952 The Great Smog (London)
⊗ 1952 Caribbean Monk Seal extinct
⊗ 1952 Term global warming coined

Interval 17:
space has the boundaries of my 
imagination—i am anticipating 
things to come

39. This is the only pattern in the series not sourced from a library book. It breaks the system of selection that I crafted however it is a 
distinctive iteration of Art Déco pattern and an iconic one appearing on fabrics and dishware that I have personally encountered numerous 
times, and although it breaks my rules they are my rules to break. 
40. A quote often attributed to Henri Matisse (but unconfirmed by the time of the publication): “When we speak of nature it is wrong to forget 
that we are ourselves a part of nature. We ought to view ourselves with the same curiosity and openness with which we study a tree, the sky or 
a thought, because we too are linked to the entire universe.”



78  |  Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals

Sham–Real Shadows

Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

18
1954

–
1963

Woods
Cole & Son
1959

A strong repeat of diagonal braches 
stem from and interweaving 
between trunks in direct horizontal 
alignment. The effect is of a prison 
made of trees that can extend 
indefinitely to the left, right, top, 
or bottom. It is an endless plenty 
of woods that presents nature 
as a boundless resource without 
possible end. 

⊕ 1956 UK Clean Air Act passed
∅ 1957 Sputnik—first artificial satellite to orbit the Earth
∅ 1960 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries 
founded
∅ 1960 First working laser
⊗ 1961 World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) founded
⊗ 1962 Silent Spring published
⊕ 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
∅ 1962 LED light technology developed
∅ 1962 First computer game

Interval 18:
there are satellites in the skies, 
lasers on the ground, and in the 
woods a silent spring all around

19
1964

–
1973

Frog Treillage
Charles Tausch
1970

A fanciful repeat of frogs in spread 
eagle position that has the graphic 
effect of an interlocking web of Xs. 
It is cartoonish, and whimsical in its 
presentation of frogs formed into a 
grid indicative of garden fencing and 
vine growing (treillage). Presents 
a view of nature as conforming to 
a pattern that itself is referencing 
gardening—the ordering of nature 
to our benefit. 

⊕ 1964 Earth Art and Op Art movements begin
∅ 1965 Astroturf invented 
⊕ 1965 First successful lawsuit for environmental harm 
⊗ 1968 The Population Bomb published
⊕ 1969 First humans on the moon
⊗ 1970 Caspian Tiger extinct
⊗ 1970 First Earth Day celebrations
⊗ 1970 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 
∅ 1971 First email 
∅ 1971 Bretton Woods system abandoned
⊗ 1971 UNESCO Man and Biosphere
⊗ 1972 First national ban on DDT
⊕ 1972 Conference on the Human Environment
⊕ 1972 “Think globally, act locally” campaign
⊗ 1972 The Limits to Growth published
⊗ 1972 Should Trees Have Standing published (should non-
human living things have legal status)
⊗ 1972 The Gaia Theory published
∅ 1973 OPEC oil crisis
⊗ 1973 Ecology Party founded (becomes the multi-nation 
Green Party)
⊗ 1973 Term deep ecology coined (human life is just one 
equal component in a broader global ecosystem)
⊗ 1973 US Endangered Species Act

Interval 19:
gardens, gardens everywhere

20
1974

–
1983

The Cliffs
Alain Le Foll
1977

The only clear isolated study of 
a non-living, non-human made 
subject in any naturalist wallpaper 
I have found in my searches. The 
illustration is graphic, heavy, and 
somber. Presents a view of nature as 
ancient, sublime and indomitable. 

⊗ 1974 World’s largest land park founded
∅ 1978 Term neoliberalism first used in current sense
⊗ 1977 First fully sequenced DNA genome
⊗ 1979 Three Mile Island nuclear event
⊗ 1979 Gaia: A new look at life on Earth published
⊗ 1979 The Sinking Ark is published
∅ 1980 Volcker Shock (hyper inflation)
⊗ 1980 Earth First! Founded
⊗ 1980 Environmental Justice movement begins

Interval 20:
the world will not die with us

21
1984

–
1993

Malita
P Frey
1980

A bright and garish repeat of flower 
bouquets. The bouquets feature 
five of the same flower in a fanned 
repeat with each set contained 
within a outlined shape. That shape 
is created by bisecting a circle and 
then crafting a downward point 
concave point that sits snuggly 
between the circle shapes below 
it to the right and left. Illustration 
style presents an orderly take 
on nature that borders on kitsch 
indifference to the subject matter 
while the repeat reflects a mass 
consumerist idea toward packaged 
cut flowers that squares nicely 
with a massive boom in the flower 
market in the 1980s.

⊗ 1984 Term ecocentrism coined (a nature centred system 
of values)
⊗ 1984 Sea of Slaughter is published
⊗ 1985 Hole in ozone layer proven
⊗ 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster
⊗ 1986 Risk Society published
⊗ 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster
⊗ 1990 The term rewilding coined (a movement to re-wild 
the human developed world)
⊕ 1991 Collapse of the Soviet Bloc
⊗ 1992 Rio ’92 Earth Summit
⊗ 1992 Newfoundland cod fishery collapse, moratorium 
goes into effect

Interval 21:
flowers with impact

22
1994

–
2003

Garden Birds
Louise Body
2001

A stark motif of crossing telephone 
wires with birds perched upon 
them. This presents the first full 
replacement of the natural world 
as backdrop with the human one 
suggestive of an urban environment. 
Presents a frank and blunt 
representation of animals existing in 
a human-made environment. 

⊗ 1995 Shifting Baseline Syndrome published (we can not 
truly understand the totality of environmental degradation 
as our own baselines within our own lifetimes are already 
skewed)
∅ 1997 Chinese workers hand pollinate apple blossoms due 
to extirpation of bees
⊗ 1997 Kyoto Protocol created
⊗ 2000 Term Anthropocene coined in current definition
⊗ 2003 Hurricane Juan slams into Nova Scotia (first major 
environmental catastrophe that had a deep impact on me)

Interval 22: 
the heat of the sun is you



Appendix B: The Anthropocene intervals  |  79

Sham–Real Shadows

Interval Years
Title, designer, date,  
and source

Description of pattern  
and critique from a personal 
perspective

Historical events and impacts pertaining to the 
Environment (⊗), Society (⊕), and Economy (∅) during 
the Anthropocene

Corresponding working titles 
for Familiar Strangers

23
2004

–
2013

Hybrid
Nice
2005

A presentation of silhouettes of 
various fauna. In the centre of each 
panel there is a complete animal 
or insect, while adjacent to the 
left and right appears half of the 
creature bisected vertically through 
the middle. These half-forms line 
up with entirely different fauna 
also in half-form to create new 
mutant animals. Presents a violent 
take on nature as a resource for 
experimentation and genetic 
manipulation.

⊗ 2007 An Inconvient Truth released
⊗ 2007 Step It Up rallies
⊗ 2007 The World Without Us published
⊗ 2007 Ecology Without Nature published
⊗ 2007 The term biocentrism coined (biology is the 
fundamental science for understanding the universe)
∅ 2008 Sub-prime mortgage crisis
⊗ 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster
⊕ 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster 
⊕ 2011 Leaded gasoline banned internationally
⊗ 2011 Deep Green Resistance founded
⊗ 2012 The Ecological Thought published
⊗ 2012 World’s largest marine park founded
⊗ 2013 Hyperobjects published
⊗ 2013 Human–made global warming is declared reality 
(United Nations)
⊗ 2013 The Once and Future World: Nature As It Was, As It Is, 
As It Could Be published
⊕ 2013 Two year Anthropocene Project at Berlin’s Haus der 
Kulturen der Welt opens

Interval 23:  
we are our own ghosts in a 
landscape of our own making



80  |  Appendix C

Sham–Real Shadows

Appendix C



Additional documentation  |  81

Sham–Real Shadows

Additional documentation
There is a DVD and or USB drive, titled Sham–Real Shadows DVD and TrevorMAA 
respectively, attached to this document that includes additional film, and high-
resolution photographic documentation for the projects discussed within this 
document, as well as the In the Grass 8:45 video work mentioned but not discussed in 
this document. 

The same information is also available online at: 
http://lowresgradstudios.ecuad.ca/tvdeynden/sham-real-shadows-final-thesis-
document/



82  |   

Sham–Real Shadows



   |  83

Sham–Real Shadows