Ingrid Koivukangas
Environmental Artist

Responding to sites around the world through works created in site specific installation, intervention, ephemeral sculpture, video, sound, web, permanent site-specific sculpture, photography, printmaking,painting & drawing.

Welcoming opportunities to work in different geographic regions & locations in the world, creating site-specific works in response to the land.

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Willow River
Little Gallery, University of Calgary,
June 2002

Willow River is an installation approximately 12 feet in length, 6 feet in height and 8 inches in depth.

This work explores the various connections between four rivers found in different parts of Canada. To the east, in Ontario: the Port Credit and Thames Rivers. On the prairies: The Bow River that runs through Calgary and further to the west, the Kootenay River which runs through the south eastern corner of British Columbia.

Althought these rivers are not physically connected in the land, they are connected through the cycle of percipitation, through the life they support and sustain and through the viewers experience of this installation.

Water was collected from each of the four rivers and then brought together in the gallery installation to nuture and sustain willow saplings that were collected along the Bow River in Calgary.

The willow was chosen because it grows in various parts of Canada, and the world, along river systems and also because it is an ancient tree that has been associated with water, healing, protection and has been used as a symbol for sealing pacts and alliances.

During the course of the installation, the willows took root and budded while the water turned a blood red colour.