Green Swans: Wildfires and Rising Seas exhibit was presented as part of Centre A’s 2024-2025 program celebrating the gallery’s 25th anniversary. The exhibition is also part of the program marking 20 years since the international 2004 conference and exhibition Mutations<>Connections: Cultural (Ex)Changes in Asian Diasporas, convened by Alice Ming Wai Jim, and for which Ramona Ramlochand was an exhibiting artist

Green Swan: Wildfires and Rising Seas are series of photo-based installations that responds to the devastating impact of global warming on all the planet’s living species. Access to the exhibitionis through a spacious foyer where a series of small format works, in some cases the experiments to the larger works, can be seen.

In the Swan series garbage and recycling bags are braided into photographs of swans to highlight the beauty of the swan and the destruction at the same time. "The backside of the swans are tragically morphed with black, blue and white plastic bags that pollute their watery habitats. Are these adaptive growths or deadly tumours? Elegiac yet majestic, the haunting images are at heart the artist thinking about ‘the swan’s last breath.’ *

Wave consisted of two large photographic collages suspended in mid-air. “…more explicitly than the other works in the exhibition, exposes the dark underbelly of unsustainable toxic capitalism, allowing eco-anxiety inducing plastics, deeply conflicted discomforts, and unthinkable degradations to seep through to the surface. A disposable face mask floating by becomes a reminder of the comeback and normalization of single use plastic items during the pandemic—with calamity prioritizing self-serving species at the top of the food chain.”*

Fire is a large hanging piece where photographs are braided together and manipulated to create a feeling of fire. The collaged images are woven to depict an intense wildfire. “…against a backdrop of saturated blue-green forest as a gripping and woeful commentary on the destruction of millions of forests and land burned and thousands of people forced to evacuate. Forest ecosystems depend on both fire and water but like all ecosystems, a symbiotic balance must be maintained.” *

* Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim from her essay accompanying the exhibition.

Captions:
Black Swan 2024: Epson Archival Ink on enhanced matte paper, 24” x 30” (61 x 76cm)
Brown Swan 2024ù; Epson Archival Ink on enhanced matte paper, 24” x 30” (61 x 76cm)
White Swan 2024; Epson Archival Ink on enhanced matte paper, 24” x 30” (61 x 76cm)
Fire 2024E :pson Archival Ink on enhanced matte paper, 40” x 57.5” (101.5 x 146cm)
Wave 2024: UV Ink on Coated Tyvek, 35” x 18’ (89 cm x 5.49metres)
Foyer Images 2024: Variable sizes

Exhibition:
September 21 – November 16, 2024, Center A Gallery, Vancouver, BC, Curator Alice Jim

Reviews:
Hold True: Public Art in Ottawa Today”, The Glebe Report, Korp, M, February 2026
“Exploring Environmental Destruction and Optimism in   Green Swan”, La Source, Liao, L and Zaimler E, Oct. 2024