Showcase exhibit at the Craig Gallery in Alderney Landing, Dartmouth, August 11-Sept 28, 2025

In an area tucked behind the residential neighbourhoods of Mainland South, Halifax, lies a globally rare habitat, where the northern boreal forest ends its southern range. Rare species of plants are able to grow amongst the whalebacks, erratics, lakes, marshes and barrens of the boreal forest where it shares an edge with the Wabanaki forest ― together providing a precious habitat for wildlife, as well as a natural playground and quiet retreat for human visitors.

Numerous artists find source material for their work in this uniquely accessible area, lassoed by urban streets and rural road. The rugged terrain, diverse wildlife, tenacious vegetation, active waters and seasonally shifting colours, serve as springboards for the imagination: a source of inspiration within steps of their doors. In turn, their artwork serves nature, calling on us as viewers to protect the beauty and wonder of lands as yet unspoiled.

From curator Frances Dorsey:

“The diversity in approach of the visual artists included here echo the multifaceted richness of the Backlands, and the other wild spaces around our city. [This] collection of works is just a taste of the reflections of the many additional visual artists, musicians, writers, dancers, philosophers, scientists, thinkers, humans who equally derive joy, inspiration and a delight in existence from experiencing these spaces. There are so many reasons to protect the animals, plants, and landscape we have so fortunately inherited here from more development, for ourselves and for future generations. We endanger them at our peril.”

From the Craig Gallery:

Backlands brings together works from eight visual artists working in a range of media. Each employs a particular vision for channeling their investigations of the Backlands, created over time and deep familiarity with the terrain, connected to one another through emotional responses to this profound and wondrous landscape.

Each body of work takes its own direction yet collectively the drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptural explorations and weavings speak and echo back to one another. We hope that the viewer will be moved to visit and consider the Backlands, and join in the efforts to cherish and protect this and other such areas around HRM from further development, so that future generations can experience the same wonder that we do today.

Eastern Garter Snake, by Joshua Barss Dunham.

Avid birdwatcher Joshua Barss Donham is taken by the granite outcroppings, whalebacks, remains of early forest burns, and delicate forest plants of the Backlands. His charming and evocative photographs are both seductive and poignant.

Into the Woods, by Frances Dorsey.

The Backlands behind Frances Dorsey’s home are a constant reminder of the natural world lying inches beyond the door. Woven compositions inspired by the terrain with particular attention to the astonishing glacial erratics question glacial, and human, time.

Moss, fungi, lichen, by Jennifer Escott.

Jennifer Escott observes intently, photographing the minute world of tiny plants on the forest floor, offering fascinating and wonderfully strange organisms that are a miniature universe teeming with life. We are invited to see the world in a grain of sand.

Backlands, by Geoffrey Grantham.

Painting primarily in the en plein air technique, Geoffrey Grantham connects with the raw surrounding landscape in a very personal way. The intimacy of this relationship affords him a profound and rewarding experience.

Entangled Path, by Ron Kuwahara.

Ron Kuwahara brings the mind of the physicist, highly respectful of the forces of nature, to the spirit of the artist who sees the harmony and beauty of the natural world. His paintings explore patterns of light and shadow with splashes of abstracted colour which form recognizable images from afar.

Jack Pine and Broom Crowberry, by Frankie Macauley.

In an abstract and minimalist style using paper and cardboard, Frankie Macauley references the topography of the McIntosh Run trails with three-dimensional sculptures. Incorporating geometric shapes, colour combinations and patterns that respond to site specific observations, she was fascinated by the observable shifts in plants, ground and canopy from one trail to the next.

A scene from Rumie Goes Rafting, by Meghan Marentette.

Children’s author Meghan Marentette illustrated her latest book Rumie Goes Rafting by making tiny handmade puppets and props and photographing them on Backlands waterways and on interior sets made with found materials. Mosses, lady bugs, twigs and bark all play important roles in Rumie’s (and Meghan’s) adventures. Select props and puppets, as well as the book, are on display at the gallery.

Painter Christopher Webb describes the Backlands as “a space beyond utility – a terrain shaped by time, resilience and natural forces rather than human intervention.” His carefully rendered images of human encroachment on this space note fragility but also a kind of hopefulness that nature will, in the end, win.

77 Jack Pine Lane, by Christopher Webb.

The depth and character of the Backlands, as seen through these artists’ contrasting yet interwoven visions, is notably rich. What could this land and its visitors yet reveal to us, if we protect it?

The “Backlands” exhibition runs in the showcase windows of the Craig Gallery at Alderney Landing, from August 11- September 28, 2025.

Learn more about the Nature Trust’s work in the Purcells Cove Backlands. And learn more about the work of the Backlands Coalition on their website.