Teck Gallery
July 27 to November 23, 2011

Tayu Hayward
We Don't Live Here Anymore

We can have wilderness without freedom; we can have wilderness without human life at all; but we cannot have freedom without wilderness.
Edward Abbey

Tayu Hayward’s exhibition We Don’t Live Here Anymore offers viewers images of a dozen places where they’d like to be - because those places have yet to be defiled by humanity’s handiwork. They are beautiful photographs and beautiful to look at, but that should not undermine their tacit environmental message, which is, to put it bluntly, “What have you done to protect the environment lately?”

Hayward provides us with ‘privileged access’ to these special sites that he has accessed by bicycle and on foot. Awe-inspiring landscape pictures may not be rare, but they are always special, and they have a long history of catalyzing positive change in their role as a key part of ‘visual environmentalism’.

Wilderness does offer a sense of freedom, but more importantly, it provides continuity with the history of the planet by locating us in the same ‘place’ that was once occupied by our distant ancestors.

This is Vancouver-based photographer Tayu Hayward’s first exhibition.

Lake Lovely Water, Squamish, B.C.