Forecast Series

Vancouver artist, Holly Schmidt is undertaking Vegetal Encounters, a three-year artist residency with the Outdoor Art Program at the University of British Columbia. Through this residency, Schmidt will creatively engage with plant life as a significant source of life, connection and learning. The artist suggests that learning with plant life involves slowing down and using all of the senses to engage deeply and with respect. As part of her residency she anticipates creating opportunities for students, staff and faculty on campus to attend to the plants around them. This engagement will result in a range of art projects in various mediums and of different durations.

 To launch her residency, Schmidt is presenting Forecast, a series of daily weather forecasts installed on the windows of the AHVA Gallery over the summer of 2019. Printed on vinyl with a mirror finish, the text reflects the shifting weather conditions outside the gallery. Rather than predicting the weather, the forecasts use the language of weather reporting to anticipate the highly localized effects of weather on humans, plants and animals on campus. 

 This is the first of many poetic weather forecasts to be written by the artist.

 More about the artist

 Holly Schmidt is an artist, curator and educator that engages processes of embodied research, collaboration and informal pedagogy to explore the multiplicity of human relations with the natural world. Her work involves the creation of temporary site-specific projects and residencies, along with material-based explorations in the studio. Her national and international exhibitions, projects and residencies include: Vegetal Encounters Residency (2019-2021) UBC Outdoor Art Program, Quiescence (2019) Burrard Arts Foundation, A-Y with Locals Only (2018) AKA Gallery, Pollen Index (2016) Charles H. Scott Gallery, Till (2014/15) Santa Fe Art Institute, Moveable Feast (2012) Burnaby Art Gallery, Grow (2011) Other Sights for Artists’ Projects. Schmidt is grateful to live and work in Vancouver, Canada, the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations.