Sam Abramovitch : Pnina, you have been involved in art for a very long time. I would like to know when you became involved with art, particularly art related to ecology ?
Pnina Gagnon : I have always been involved. I lived close to nature, mostly outdoors.
S. A. : Is there a particular reason why you started to emphasize ecology rather than other possibilities ?
P. G. : It is a growing subject. Ecology and understanding the globe is something that always touched me in every aspect. For example, I worked on the human body as a topic and was exhibited at Concordia in 1978, and in my eyes humans were no more the finest creation of God. I slowly went towards what is outside the human content and towards the effects of man’s deeds, towards what he can do with his hands. I painted hands for two years and then the deeds of his hands.
S. A. : You mention, if I understood correctly, that you want to learn more about nature, about how society functions and also the saving of society and the world. We may come back to this, hopefully. Do you think that painting helps you increase your understanding the workings of the world and of nature ?
P. G. : Yes, because when we see how waves reach shore, the beauty of nature, it is so total : Even in the routine of high and low tides and their force, you want to preserve the water’s transparency and perfect salinity. I do not want to see seabirds choking with bits of plastic toys, or turtles with floating sheets of PVC and treating whales’ cadavers as toxic waste.
S. A. : I was under the impression that you said that working on subjects related to nature was one of your reasons to learn more about nature ?
P. G. : Yes.
S. A. : Do you think that, just from observing nature, you could learn more in terms of waves or do you not think that it requires a more basic scientific approach to understand why waves are big or small, high tide and low tides ?
P. G. : No. I am interested in the endless possibilities of the movement and lines that occur around us – and depicting them. For example during two years I made a whole series about reflections – the light reflection, scintillating lights on the water – and I think that these lines never repeat, you can never see the same wave twice, and they will never be in the same order. It is so rich, like the moving shadows, with changes in different seasons. Of course, it can now be done with a computer.
S. A. : This is not what I am trying to get at. By looking at one of your works, would I become smarter about nature or will I only see what you have on canvas or paper and admire it or dislike it or be bored by it ?
P. G. : When I worked on the moving shadows inside a house, you have a window with sunlight coming in and a plant casting a shadow. Madame Borduas – we were very close to her then – when she saw my work, she exclaimed that she never noticed these shadows moving on her wall. Because she saw my painting, she learnt something new.
S. A. : Pnina, you obviously have been involved with ecology in its broad aspects, and most of your paintings are on that topic. Can you describe the point you are making with regards to your attitude towards ecology by describing two or three of your paintings or drawings to illustrate your point ? I know we are not looking at the work, but assuming that it is in front of us, as a viewer, would I see and understand your position ?
P. G. : As an example, I have done a whole series of large drawings, in colour with inks, of fish, birds, frogs, elephants and turtles, each one in black and white and in colour, with different animals for each sheet. The rich colours in the works were to attract the eye, to make the subjects as colourful as I can, and the black and white to show their fate when they will be extinct. Many butterflies and fish are grey or silvery and very much alive, but would never be assembled on one surface the way I drew them. I wanted to do these two parallel series, in colour and in black and white. It was the only time that I tried to teach, to show people how beautiful nature can be if we let the animals remain alive, or how sad it would be if the world became grey and colourless.
I have recently done a project on gorillas whose mountainous domain is getting smaller and their livelihood restricted. It is easy to imagine that, in Canada, with such a large area, there would be room for polar bears but they become skinny. The changing equilibrium in the temperatures and the capacity of living creatures to survive in them is concerning me. In one of my works, I made a three-dimensions lean whale with discarded pulp. I painted its belly with bloody red, as if it were floating in it own blood. I take all this very seriously but I am not certain of my success.
S. A. : Do you think that the viewer, by looking at one of the works you described, will become convinced of the importance of keeping the animals alive, or that the reaction would be that it is a good work of art done by a skilled person and not necessarily come away with the message “Long Live the Gorillas ?”
P. G. : I think that, after 40 years of my work and learning, the series on ecology – saving the world, if you want – is also quality painting. I used specially designed paper with texture for the turtles and elephants to help give the work the look of animal skin. On the other hand, it does have a message. People can be aware of the message, as I remarked in my exhibition at the Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges a few years ago. Many children saw it, and it created a reaction, as well : Greenpeace people were outside, signing petitions dealing with the fate of the whales. In addition, less dramatic than the others, I exhibited my whales series in a gallery at a funeral home and published a catalogue at my own cost to show the seriousness of the situation.
S. A. : Do you think that the message you wish to project might be clearer to the viewer if you depicted the animals as victims of the industrialization of the world rather than how great they look ?..(extrait)

ETC