JESSICA AUER AND ANDREAS RUTKAUSKAS – PHOTOGRAPHY

Jessica Auer and Andreas Rutkauskas both look at the human occupation of land in their work – Auer through a look at art and archaeology sites such as Machu Picchu or Smithson's Spiral Jetty at Great Salt Lake, Utah; Rutkauskas with his examination of suburban housing developments across the country. Jessica Auer's compulsion to view and understand places, and her fascination with recreation and tourism have led her to photograph popular cultural sites in North and South America. These images give witness to the way landscape and architecture has been preserved, restored or altered for tourism, along the way addressing issues of post-colonialism, environmental sustainability and education. Andreas Rutkauskas's practice rises out of the differing attitudes toward the urban environment in cities across Canada. The desire to live in a metropolis is weighed against economic and social reasoning, resulting in a boom in suburban development. This work underscores both the dystopia and desire that such housing tracts represent and calls into question issues of urban decay, socio-cultural change and environmental legacies.

Jessica Auer, Glacier National Park, British Columbia, 2007

Andreas Rukauskas, Kanata, 2007