George Rammell

When people ask what my preferred artistic medium is, I respond by saying my medium changes as I follow the trail of various ideas. Each search takes on a life of its own regarding materials, activities, aesthetics, scale and site. I often follow threads of cultural expression that feel unresolved and in need of a sculptural statement to fill the void. 

I work towards a heightened sense of 3-dimensionality where my subjects sustain an inherently ephemeral and often contentious nature.

As a settler living on Indigenous territory much of my sculptural work, actions and interventions have enabled me to articulate ideas regarding displacement. I've created public works in Sweden, France and Austria that convey ancestral belonging in relation to the European diaspora to North America. Cultural alienation, a search for belonging  and haptic studio practices that embrace Indigenous knowledge constantly surface in my work. My long relationship with contemporary Indigenous artists has informed me and enabled me to work at an intersection of eclectic worldviews.  

Following my arrest at the gates of the Kinder Morgan oil tank "farm" in Burnaby in 2018 I saw the injustice and baboonery of the so called "justice system", where judges uninformed of issues regarding Indigenous Laws, ecology and climate change were acting as legal Billy-clubs. They were incarcerating Indigenous land defenders, scientists and health professionals to shield the oil industry. I responded with a series of artivist works that help put a face on the multitude of injustices imposed by  government and industry.  .