“Silence”: For the Cinnamon Bear, 2025

Phytogram on 3378 16mm Film.

1:56 min

“Silence”: For the Cinnamon Bear is a phytogram film created during a residency at Riding Mountain National Park. The film is an abstract depiction of a place I’ve called home all my life. I collected rainwater to make the phytogram solution (washing soda and vitamin C powder) then collected fallen debris from the area; Deep Bay beach and cabin, South Lake, and the Cove. I used feathers, sticks, pine needles, long grass, flowers, and buried the film under gravel, rocks, and sand. I also tried drawing the phytogram solution onto the film using a stick and feather without placing any object on it. Then to fix the film it was soaked in salt water for 2 to 3 days. I then placed the recorder in a similar situation as the film during exposure, like buried under rocks and sand, or in my pocket while I collected the materials. I recorded the people at the beach, birds, loons, bugs, walking, and cars in the parking lot above the cabin.

The title of this film “Silence” For the Cinnamon Bear was inspired by the cinnamon bear living right by the cabin while I was there. I would be awoken in the middle of the night to groups of teens screaming that there was a bear. I wanted to give an offering to the bear of the quiet stillness of its’ home without the jarring screams of terror. The goal of this film was to find a new perspective of a place I’ve spent years looking at and existing in the same way, stuck in my familiar routine.