By: Niveja Assalaarachchi, News Writer
On November 6, the “Banks Off Campus Day of Action” art exhibition was held at the Student Union Building social stage to showcase George Rammell’s art. Rammell is a Gambier Island-based artist whose work focuses on climate activism and collaboration with Indigenous artists. The exhibit centred resistance to new fossil fuel projects in BC, and was organized by SFU350, Change Course, and Simon Fraser Public Interest Group.
On Instagram, the organizers wrote that the event comes amid growing enthusiasm for fossil fuel projects in the country, with major Canadian banks having increased their investments in the sector. Additionally, the federal government has passed legislation like Bill C-5, which helps streamline project permits, raising doubts about Canada’s climate change commitments. The Peak attended the event and spoke with Rammell for more information.
Rammell, who graduated from Emily Carr University in 1975, said his art was a “combination of old worldmaking and conceptual ideas about our current world.” Though not Indigenous himself, he has worked extensively with Indigenous artists such as Haida artist Bill Reid. Rammell mentioned that Reid hired him in 1979 to help sculpt pieces such as The Raven and the First Men and The Spirit of Haida Gwaii.
Rammell, though noting his art always highlighted cultural issues, said his experience of being arrested in 2018 fighting the Trans-Mountain pipeline highly influenced his artistic outlook.
“I saw the inside of the justice system when I was in front of a judge. I saw how these judges are really acting as legal billy clubs for the oil and gas industry and how you don’t get real justice in the so-called justice system.”
— George Rammell, artist
His experience with the judicial system inspired another piece featuring three Supreme Court justices as ventriloquist dummies sitting under a satirized version of the Canadian coat of arms. The sculpture, which also included the portraits of former prime ministers Justin Trudeau and Stephen Harper, was photographed and displayed at the art exhibit.
The exhibition also displayed a modified version of the Royal Bank of Canada’s logo, featuring a lion breathing fire on the earth.
The main piece of art on display was a map of Western Canada depicting injustices by the oil industry. Rammell said the map was initially centred around the Trans Mountain Pipeline route. However, in order to fully display the effects of the petroleum industry on the region, he expanded the map. The map was littered with different examples of environmental degradation, such as the depiction of oil and gas wells, which have continued to leak methane emissions despite being abandoned.
Rammell included examples of advocates and education resources that have helped reveal the scale of ecological harm caused by the oil industry. Overall, he described his map as a “compendium of contradictions, illegalities, environmental infractions, and government cover-up.”
He noted this form of art was therapeutic for him. “I find that art is a kind of release for me. It feels like I’m doing something. I’m inciting a dialogue, I’m inciting a discussion about where we go from here.”
However, he noted he wished to see more action from fellow artists on this issue. “A lot of my friends that I went to art school with are making very tasteful work that’s very collectable and very tasteful. It’s not offensive in any way, it’s not political, and I feel like shaking them and telling them, ‘come on people, let’s take a year off and do some work that would speak to the immediacy of the times.’”
