Jesse Purcell

Made as a call to action, this print is part of a portfolio about resource extraction. Tar sands are natural deposits composed of sand, clay, water, and bitumen (thick black oil). The bitumen in tar sands is used in building materials and asphalt, but the extraction process creates problems. Tar sands extraction on Dene and Cree Indigenous lands in Alberta, Canada, affects people, wildlife, forests, and wetlands and contaminates air and water supplies. With its bold lettering on an oil barrel beneath the waterline, Slow Industrial Genocide brings awareness to this dangerous process and its impacts on Indigenous communities and local ecosystems.

–Marny Kindness, exhibitions manager