Toni Hafkensheid, HO, Harcourt House, July 26 - August 28, 2007

Image credit: Toni Hafkensheid, C-print, 2007.

Literally, and of course figuratively blurring the line between the real and the imagined, Amsterdam-based Hafkensheid embarked on a series of photographs depicting his impression of British Columbia, mainly, his sense that the B.C. interior greatly resembles one giant train model set.
The sharp colour contrasts, of a deep green forest and a red train against a blue sky, do of course resemble early 20th century childhood representations of train sets and old postcards.
Only, to maybe go back, those train sets were modelled after the reality of the rail road. Cutting along mountains and forests, the figure of the railway only be the first intrusion into nature.
In the last 50 years have we so rapidly abandoned train travel for a far greater number roads that when we encounter a volume of nature, we can't help but find it exotic and nostalgic.
Postcards are the traveler's memory bank of a certain place and time; and this exhibit will most likely serve metamnenonically as a reminder of what nature in the early 21st century had looked like.