Kathleen Vance, a New York-based environmental artist, creates enchanting miniature ecosystems inside vintage suitcases in her series “Traveling Landscapes”. These intricate works of art feature soil, live plants, and water bodies, meticulously arranged to mimic natural landscapes. Vance’s use of vintage luggage not only adds a nostalgic touch but also emphasizes themes of travel and the displacement of nature. Each piece serves as a reminder of the preciousness of natural resources and the importance of preserving them.
Vance’s art bridges the gap between authentic and inauthentic encounters with nature. By placing these miniature landscapes in suitcases, she explores the concept of accessibility to untouched natural sites and the human desire to possess and protect these environments. Her work invites us to reflect on their relationship with nature and the impact of human activity on the environment. Through her creative use of recycled materials and her focus on ecological themes, Vance’s “Traveling Landscapes” series offers a unique and thought-provoking perspective on environmental conservation.
Materials that are commonly defined as natural and artificial are combined in the creation of these works, isolating aspects that are indicative of the ‘natural’ (while sometimes are considered unnatural). The landscapes created are transformative in their illusion of a nature scene; they are contained in traveling cases to magnify the displacement of a seemingly natural landscape in an unusual framework. These pieces extenuate the desire for ‘untouched’ natural environments, and the claim and proprietorship that are placed on plots of land, which carries over to water rights.
Kathleen Vance
More info: Website, Instagram (h/t: Colossal).
