Annalee Davis

Did you know that the dictionary assigns a negative connotation to the word “exploiting” when it refers to taking advantage of someone, and a positive connotation when referring to resource allocation? Unfortunately, exploiting of resources has often happened in lands that were not owned by the developer, or were acquired illegally. Even in the dictionary the Western viewpoint attempts to cover up the devastation caused by colonialism. Used as a stock room for invading nations or corporations, no care is given to the values, traditions, and lives of the original inhabitants. Used as long as they could produce, these lands were eventually returned to the remaining locals, devastated, devoid of previous centuries of care. Youth are left confused, fractured between previous traditions and new cultures, not knowing the right direction to go.

Annalee Davis sensitively portrays extinct species over hunted, clippings of species richness from her own home, set in what could be an apse of a cathedral. Referencing a spiritual space where traditions, biodiversity, and humanity are symbolically respected, honored and even worshipped, Davis looks to a brighter future in which humanity can learn to properly coexist with nature, correctly repairing and healing the pain and desolation it has caused to itself.