Gretchen Markle

Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

The Developers' Feast is a life-size picnic table whose metaphor is that developers are being served up ecologically valuable land by tax-hungry local governments. The central runner is covered in 'bleeding hearts': a derogatory name often given to socially concerned women by politicians and developers with whom they do not see eye-to-eye. Stretched tight and frayed around the edges, it represents the artist herself and all others who take up the exhausting challenge of trying to protect endangered ecosystems. The "china" depicts areas either threatened by development or already lost to clear-cutting. Please take the time to read the menus and the captions around the edges of the plates.