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Lyndal Osborne’s Installations Explore Consequences of Genetic Modification

Lyndal Osborne, a native of Australia now based in Canada, has long explored nature and issues surrounding the environment in her work. More recent installations, like "Curtain of Life", specifically react to the issue of genetically modified organisms. Or as the Vernon Public Art Gallery, which hosts these works, phrases it: "The objective of this exhibition is to address the issues of (GMOs) and their impact on traditional food growers, especially in the Okanagan Valley region with its extensive fruit and vegetable production." (photo credit: Josh Palmer)

Lyndal Osborne, a native of Australia now based in Canada, has long explored nature and issues surrounding the environment in her work. More recent installations, like “Curtain of Life,” specifically react to the issue of genetically modified organisms. Or as the Vernon Public Art Gallery, which hosts these works, phrases it: “The objective of this exhibition is to address the issues of (GMOs) and their impact on traditional food growers, especially in the Okanagan Valley region with its extensive fruit and vegetable production.”             (photo credit: Josh Palmer)
(photo credit: Josh Palmer)
(photo credit: Josh Palmer)
(photo credit: Josh Palmer)

Osborne says she feels like an archeologist, “seeking and retrieving discarded fragments of the urban environment and the dried out remains of natures’ seasons.” She then recreates these objects, extracting imagery from both the nature and unnatural worlds that appears to reflect both in their beauty and unsettling qualities.
(photo credit: Josh Palmer)

(photo credit: Josh Palmer)

“I am expressing in my work images which are about timelessness and regeneration,” she says. “In one sense it is a form of purification, but it is also a way to understand death and to celebrate life through our need to define and humanise our existence on this planet.”

Osborne’s “Curtain of Life,” in particular, uses gourds found in Keremeos to anchor each piece of the installation. Nuts and seeds are then worked into the pieces, further offering an intimate look into natural food and the possible consequences of our meddling.

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