ee portal (PORTAL, Elyse and PORTAL Emilio)

ee portal (Elyse and Emilio Portal) has been creating interdisciplinary works since 2011. Notable works include advanced life support unit (University of Victoria, 2011), who is this land am i (University of Toronto, 2013), microhabitats/self-deception (No Vacancy, 2015), (re)member of water (Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, 2015), handmade fire (Garden Skool, 2016), and three ways of working with plants (WKP Kennedy Gallery, 2017). At the root of our practice, we acknowledge the primordial essence of land and place. The epic, unspoken and tragic stories of nature have become our main source material. We are deeply interested in the idea that land is sentient, that it has emotions, and that the land itself is an artist. In our view, the land’s emotions are intrinsic to our own emotions. The land is the artist and we are the work. An important ongoing discussion for us is the schism between natural manifestations versus human alterations. Human modification of the environment on a large scale is never done by one individual. The larger destruction is agreed upon, albeit passively, by society as a whole. We challenge this passivity and unspoken agreement through our commitment to deeply questioning and re-investigating our age-old relationship, or lack thereof, with nature.

http://elyseportal.com/