Environmental Artist Packs Entire Ecosystems into Suitcases

By
Jas Cilas
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Kathleen Vance is a self-described environmental artist who focuses on sculptural installations. This talented artist recently captured the attention of the art world and social media users thanks to her series of works titled Traveling Landscapes.

Traveling Landscapes see Vance impressively packing entire ecosystems into small suitcases. These ecosystems are filled with green bushes, rocky terrain, and even water.

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Thank you @grace.l.ebert and @colossal for the feature on my #travelinglandscapes !! . . New York City-based artist Kathleen Vance creates lush landscapes brimming with green mosses, foliage, and rocky surfaces all stored in an unusual carrier: vintage suitcases. Vance’s ongoing Traveling Landscapes series connects travel and natural resources, inclining her to incorporate active water components into many of her miniature ecosystems. The artist tells Colossal she hopes to convey that “water and our natural open landscapes are our legacy to the future generations and something that must be protected and cherished.” Her more recent pieces, like “Traveling Landscape, Spelunker,” deviate from her previous work by including caverns replete with hanging stalactites and stalagmites, or icicle-like rock formations, that she sculpts by hand. Utilizing found vessels, Vance says she wants to “relate to a time when travel was slower and the distances between us and our homelands and foreign landscapes were more difficult to access.” Each portable environment is designed and retrofit for specific steamer trunks and train cases. The cases act to abstract the idea of travel and romanticize its idyllic qualities. I am always on the look out for cases that have some indication of travel, with notes and markers which give a feeling that they have really been used for used for transportation of someone’s special or personal items. . . See the whole article here: https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/02/kathleen-vance-traveling-landscapes/ . . #travelinglandscape #vintage #landscape #sculpture #environment #environmentalart #travel #suitcase #ecosystem #luggage #water #contemporaryart #buildyourdreamcollection

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According to the artist, she hopes her artworks will not only amaze people but also inspire them to protect and appreciate the natural world around us.

“The cases act to abstract the idea of travel and romanticize its idyllic qualities,” said Vance in a recent interview. “I am always on the lookout for cases that have some indication of travel, with notes and markers which give a feeling that they have really been used for used for transportation of someone’s special or personal items.”

Take a look at some of Vance’s works below.