Before The Eye (antoillier)

Before The Eye (antoillier) by Cannupa Hanska Luger was a commissioned new monumental public artwork for the 2022 Manif d'art 10 - La Biennale de Quebec in Quebec City, Canada.

This artwork is an unavoidable monument to the collateral damage of global economic demand on forest resources. Each year in Quebec, logging claims over 500,000 acres of forest, and is the most widespread cause of boreal caribou declines across Canada. Boreal caribou are an “indicator species,” meaning their decline signals trouble in the boreal forest more broadly. Meanwhile, Indigenous peoples across the province are losing a species that has been vital to their ways of life for millennia.

The bright red steel line-work of this monument stands brightly against the snow covered winter landscape of downtown Quebec, Canada as a signal of distress and a need for immediate action in demanding environmental protection for the lands which sustain the caribou.

”As an Indigenous person from the Northern Plains I was born into a tribe with more than human kinships. My people have long been interdependent with the Buffalo. I was born long after their eradication and believe this tragedy can be avoided. Action must be taken now.”