The theme of landscape has been in part inspired by some of my recent reading, and in particular two books. Landscape and Memory by Simon Schama and The End of Nature by Bill McKibben. The former is philosphical and the latter is a warning (in fact a WAKE UP call) to those who are willing to listen. It describes the current destruction of real nature which is being replaced by phoney (i.e. man made) nature. The cover gives the tone: placed upon a barren and desolate landscape is a large billboard which has a photograph of TREES. The message: This is how it used to look - now all you have is empty of all life - Nature is dead!

So I like to think of these pieces as a TEMOIGNAGE A LA NATURE and also a WAKE UP CALL.

- - Marianne Spottswood

Requiem for a Tree and Canyon both contain the image of the snake. Most Western cultures tend to associate the snake with sin or dishonesty - aludes to someone who is up to no good! The current destruction of the Brazilian rain forest is human folly and greed in the extreme: portrays the base of a large tree on which the snake has made its bed. Canyon could be Manhattan, or any other over-built modern city. In this case, corporate greed has created an inhuman landscape - devoid of trees and grass.
All Tied Up shows the fallow fields newly sown with genetic seeds, thereby becoming the property of large corporations who exploit farmers, now in debt for life as they are obliged to buy new seed each year from the same company.
	Dwellings was inspired by the famous rcok formations in Arizona. These caves were the dwelling place for generations of Native Americans. They were massacred by the invading White Man who were also eager to take their herds of wild bison and thereby starving them to death. The Native Indians had a respect for nature, with whom they lived in harmony - unlike the European invaders bent on exploiting whatever produced a monetary profit.
Split is a reference to the mining industry which lays bare large tracts of land creating desolation and death. Also it evokes the Gold Rush to the west coast of America in search of small nuggets of gold.