EXHIBITIONS
Sarah Fuller: Submersed Landscapes Exhibition
Gallery 881 is pleased to present Submersed Landscapes, a solo exhibition by Sarah Fuller that explores the chemical and material imprint of place on photographic film. Using water from the Athabasca Glacier, charcoal from controlled burns, and native flora, Fuller’s “film souping” process creates altered, quasi-psychedelic images that register the environmental transformations of the Rocky Mountains. Both visual and visceral, the work draws attention to the convergence of micro and macro—glacial melt, ancient seas, and the tangible effects of climate change.
With the generous support of the Winnipeg Arts Council with funding from the City of Winnipeg.
GALLERY 881
881 East Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC
Canada V6A 3Y1
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SUBMERSED LANDSCAPES
by Sarah Fuller
Exhibition
September 6 - September 24, 2025
Opening Reception
Saturday, September 6, 2025 from Noon - 5pm
EXHIBITION STATEMENT
In Submersed Landscapes, I’m engaged with the idea that the ecosystem has agency, and that a rendering of the land can be expressed not only as an image, but also revealed chemically through its materiality in a photographic process.
To create the work, I used elements from the landscape to alter the final image through a process called “film souping”. Film souping is a technique wherein a roll of film is altered by submersion in a tea of boiling water with unconventional materials prior to film development. This can be done before or after exposure, and practitioners frequently use household items like lemon juice and washing soda to get a variety of effects .
In this series, I wanted to use elements that responded to the actual environment I was photographing in. Water from the Athabasca glacier was combined with charcoal from a controlled burn and Labrador Tea leaves to create a film soup. I then submerged a roll of 35mm film with images taken at higher altitudes at Plain of Six Glaciers & Lake Louise (Banff National Park) and the Athabasca Glacier (Jasper National Park). I used Lomo Purple 35mm film for this work, a film type known for strange purple, pink and turquoise hues. In my work these tones are altered and exaggerated through both the film souping process and post-production.
Over the last 20 years, I have witnessed the change in the mountains due to climate change – from rapidly melting glaciers in the alpine to increased summer heat and extreme forest fires. The day after I collected water from the Athabasca Glacier, the town of Jasper was hit by a massive forest fire and the Park was evacuated.
With this work, I am thinking about the ways that glacial melt, forest fires, and alpine flora can interact with images of the land affected by these same processes of destruction and regeneration . The results are surreal, quasi-psychedelic imagery that feature the chemical imprint of the ecosystem on the emulsion itself.
The idea of submersion also speaks to the history of the Rocky Mountains and the stone’s previous location at the bottom of an ancient sea. The chemical reactions that appear on the surface of the film are akin to (and biochemically influenced by) the multicellular sea life entombed 530 million years ago in the stone of the Burgess Shale, drawing attention to the micro and the macro simultaneously present in the land.
BIOGRAPHY
Sarah Fuller is a settler-Canadian artist who works in photography, video and installation. She has been an artist in residence at Skaftfell and Ströndin Studio, Iceland, the Ós Residency in Blönduós, Iceland, Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, Laughing Waters in Nillumbick Shire, Australia, the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC), Yukon, Fondazione Antonio Ratti, Italy, and the Association of Visual Artists (SIM), Iceland.
Sarah holds an MFA from the University of Ottawa and a BFA from Emily Carr University. Recent exhibitions include Remold at the C2 Centre for Craft (2024), Aesthetic Paralysis at Deluge Contemporary (online) (2024), Redesigning Paradise at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies with artists Mary Anne Barkhouse, Dianne Bos and Penelope Stewart (2023) and Terra Incogknita at PLATFORM centre for photographic + digital arts (2020).
Sarah’s work is in public and private collections including the Canada Council for the Arts Art Bank, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the Walter Phillips Gallery, the Indie Photobook Library and Global Affairs Canada.
Image courtesy of Sarah Fuller.