http://www.coleswanson.org/work daily 1.0 2025-12-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1459820787112-N2FLIA92ZXT84HKL1MO1/3037_aggSWANSON_003.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1459821503285-QHPV8URTKFWQ74MPS3AO/CSwanson3.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1459823389078-K6I6UOUS0SNZE72UR83R/Detail+print.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1459822043478-1R6TUEDVJHN45NUNUG8K/image-asset.jpeg Work Image courtesy of Dean Palmer Photography https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1459822492127-70465G4E9L7NYZ37OZ7G/3037_aggSWANSON_098.jpg Work This large-scale installation artwork is a reference to the pre-modern belief that honeybees were spontaneously generated from cattle bodies in a vicious ritual called ‘bougonia.’ The literal and symbolic act of killing and burying cattle to repopulate mass honeybee losses appears throughout the ages in countries across Africa, Europe, and Asia. These ideas resonate in the present as we encounter similar anxieties around dwindling bee populations and unethical animal husbandry practices in industrial farming.     https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1508637124919-71FPEDTDU9O4ZCWH0GN5/M11.jpg Work Sacred Bone, latex paint on glass, Unilever Detergent Factory, 2017. Believed by ancient Greeks and Romans to be the seat of the soul, the sacrum has been fashioned as an icon for the exhibition, a window through which the world outside of the factory can be contemplated. The city skyline, public infrastructure, industrial architecture, and spartan wild growth can be viewed through different sections of the installation. The work offers a counterpoint to the interior space of the factory in which cattle byproducts were processed to create the detergent soap exported by the Unilever company. Image courtesy of Sandra Osonjik, 2017 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221739368-JW941SZ8DUYW62BPWSCA/Roadside+Monument+-+Portage+La+Prairie.jpg Work - Portage La Prairie Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 7"  2011 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382215797806-3UU41TGQ6XH60Q9DOEHF/012.jpg Work - Parliamentary Cats Pressed Pennies (detail) Custom die zinc pressed penny 2011   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1475468501135-9WCD8OK4N87FL2XZYTO5/K4.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1509682856640-6HMSFA7JVYYH8O0WSSDE/Alv+4+-+300dpi.jpg Work Alvearium II (Detail), 2017. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1409688148989-J0X75Q90KVE5XUSO9G7T/RE01.jpg Work - Red Earth Red Earth is a large scale installation that celebrates the history and materiality of Jaipur's longstanding engagement with earth-based handicrafts. An expression of the Indian region's visual identity, earthenware forms serve countless functions for the city's residents. Once expired, terracotta is discarded to the streets without bestowing upon the earth the ill-effects of other industrially produced materials. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1412132857270-XLSANHCFWMN9LUB25A35/01+CSystem.jpg Work - Tuesday Night Special Chicken skeleton (Mammoth BBQ Chicken), blood, 24 carat gold leaf 2013 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1501184049502-AV4VOIKHLH8IOVJ4WHMK/LM3.jpg Work The artwork demonstrates the transformative and generative forces at play as nature reclaims human-made structures. The piece is titled after one of many specific lichen found - muralis - named after the aesthetic qualities inherent to the organism's growth cycle. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1536432480574-SBYQLPPGSKJQQQ93GAMA/11.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1535043015248-1W8O0LVIOBRHXBS11JOK/02.jpg Work मिटटी सिटी | Mitti City (or City of Soil) is a collaborative public art project lead by Cole Swanson in Ramganj Bazaar, Jaipur, India. In association with The Open Space Society (TOSS), Uday-Waldorf Inspired School of Jaipur, and Contree, community members of various ages illuminated the biological activity on an historic rooftop in Jaipur’s old city. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1512582139468-ELIVA5SVUM6YVGA88JPK/6.jpg Work Colony is a study on the relationship between urban development, green-space construction, and animal colony habitation. This piece examines animal activity in Tommy Thompson Park including its massive population of double crested cormorants. A human-made space, the park hosts a highly intensified bird colony that has significant impacts on the area’s tree growth. Local researchers have worked tirelessly to introduce the colony to ground nesting sites, achieving notable success and averting plans to cull birds. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382213810338-DG80FN08JBVNWCXT00J0/C+Install+1.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1526528659304-MABJFIFC6Z2ICVARK187/1.jpg Work Monument is the culmination of a five year process of collecting, pinning, and gilding insects found within and around domestic spaces. The use of gold draws attention to the beautiful and complex structures of the insect body - the veins in the wings, the textures of the thorax, the banding on the abdomen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1548310461387-PRJ8A9ETJCZGS5XZILCR/4.jpg Work Terraflora is based on previous projects conducted in Ilhabela, Brazil and Rajasthan, India wherein natural colours were used to illuminate the growth of bacteria, fungi, algae, and lichens upon human-made structures. In this iteration, the artwork evokes those natural processes of growth and deterioration that would befall the hotel if devoid of human intervention. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1477101909379-EBXLL7MSSU6BGOQYBGUD/StarSwarm.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1565649347328-QYTU5GROPZNWBEND66MM/05.jpg Work Over time, the mineral rich paint will interact with the bacteria, fungi, lichens, mosses, and other organisms to influence new forms of growth and transform in appearance before being processed back into the earth below. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1631979514806-9XIF3MYQ8NW4LHY9XA42/10c_SentryDetail2.jpg Work https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1645292138757-AZ5JHOKXEQ9E1RLYNKSF/07.jpg Work Whimsical imagery resulting from interactions between pigments and water forms the structure of the piece, gathering high in the room, evoking both the earth and the clouds above it. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1660066747027-4EGGFDOSKOZ19ZGIKMKN/06.jpg Work This piece explores the complex issues around introduced species through a comparative examination of two bees of the same genus – Megachile rotundata (alfalfa leafcutter bees) and Megachile sculpturalis (giant resin bees). The artwork integrates and subverts multiple knowledge systems to unpack biases in favour of and against these organisms as they reflect value systems based on science, commerce, environment, and aesthetics. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1586013993467-7PQNXONSO2UYNA0EGUXR/01.jpg Work The Hissing Folly looks at Durham Region’s ecological landscape and poses critical questions around human relationships with those deemed ‘invasive species’, specifically phragmites (European common reed). The project embodies the colonial, consumer, and cultural systems as agents for the passage of phragmites from Europe to North America, reflecting on the dissonance between the generative and destructive capacities of organisms mediated by human values and activities. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1564764471995-7A6ITKQK20OT2HU9GEAU/24.jpg Work The exhibition examines the material connections between humans and cormorants as demonstrated by the birds’ collection of non-biodegradable waste materials. Devil’s Colony is a recreation of the nesting site and its dramatic shifts in ecological activity. The work transports patrons into the heart of the colony to bear witness to the complex lives of a burgeoning species at a critical sociocultural and political moment. Through this intimate, material encounter, Devil’s Colony attempts to promote curiosity and empathy to consider the manifold relationships we share with other agents in the natural world. Spit Spectre, C-print, 48” x 32”, 2019, documentation by Jamie McMillan https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1703445468503-2B1LTWUZFKHJESVYDN1I/36.jpg Work http://www.coleswanson.org/urban daily 0.75 2017-07-29 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221601973-BQWO0BC7CX4ET7V615IT/Black+Monkey+Claw.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - A large, metal claw Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221601973-BQWO0BC7CX4ET7V615IT/Black+Monkey+Claw.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - A large, metal claw Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221601483-E1GSQL2W8ONI4U198AFW/Black+Monkey+Cat.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - Transforming into a black cat Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221601100-02ICFBCX45JE67SVZJ7S/Black+Monkey+Bandages.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - A bandaged thing Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221602511-XTXUWC666GOXZBWUCOJR/Black+Monkey+Helmet.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - Wearing a motorcycle helmet Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221603356-98KOG7LFH3Y6DP7BYPCC/Black+Monkey+Motherboard.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - A cyborg with a motherboard Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221603709-OIIB08BZHFR7Z8ZUY40B/Black+Monkey+Springs.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - Springs on the feet for jumping Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012   https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1382221654356-HBSQR71RI0DXP2N9A6RL/Black+Monkey+Burqa.jpg Kala Bandar Identikits - Cloaked in dark cloth Opaque watercolour on wasli, 4" x 6"  2012   http://www.coleswanson.org/new-cover-page daily 0.75 2020-01-30 http://www.coleswanson.org/contact daily 0.75 2013-11-01 http://www.coleswanson.org/news daily 0.75 2025-09-17 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1566785843977-HEJBXQA22IW1NURJYUFP/05.jpg News http://www.coleswanson.org/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2017-07-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1501207206112-K875CBHA4O46DLBHGKDP/IMG-20170214-WA0002.jpg Educator https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1501207672519-11QUGDYYZ9V3DHAXLRSK/image-asset.png Educator http://www.coleswanson.org/bio daily 0.75 2024-12-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1549001191478-FNVSU5UYEVE39G1CNUYL/C2.jpg Bio http://www.coleswanson.org/library daily 0.75 2023-12-27 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1552775193077-WY98Z5WNU6UALHJI5FY2/Antennae%2Bcopy.jpg Library Matter Matters: Lecanora Muralis Swanson, Cole. Lecanora Muralis, Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, No. 45. London, UK, 2018. www.antennae.org.uk/home/4594152034 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1618938838573-B1GHYD8INMXJ3KM4Y7JS/VE2.jpg Library Vegetal Entanglements III: The Empire and the Hissing Folly Swanson, Cole. The Empire and the Hissing Folly, Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, No. 53. London, UK, 2021. www.antennae.org.uk/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1616701963503-ZTSCKOEDTGBQ1658P2J3/Hissing+Folly.jpeg Library Cole Swanson: The Hissing Folly Doull, Darryn; Gregory, Helen; Saad, Sandy. Visual Arts Centre of Clarington, 2020. www.vac.ca https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1552770240962-PZB73XERJ1I0VBTXYLYB/Spec+Tax.jpg Library Speculative Taxidermy: Natural History, Animal Surfaces, and Art in the Anthropocene. Aloi, Giovanni. Columbia University Press, New York, USA 2018. cup.columbia.edu/book/speculative-taxidermy/9780231180719 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/676e622b-77fc-436d-86c3-b8b55ce64c16/cover_issue_7_en_US.jpg Library Ecocene: Monuments & Megachile Swanson, Cole. Monuments & Megachile: Lessons from the Insect Graveyard, Ecocene: Cappadocia Journal of Environmental Humanities, 4 No.1, Cappadocia University, 2023. ecocene.kapadokya.edu.tr/index.php/ecocene https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1552770221483-1FZU014LVVNFWOZ4W0BN/CSwansonoutoftthestrong.jpg Library Cole Swanson: Out of the Strong, Something Sweet McLellan, Ashley; Owen, Dawn; Topdjian, Carolyne. Art Gallery of Guelph. Guelph, 2016. artgalleryofguelph.ca https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1552770267947-TJYM2F2FPQU60A6DCZ79/Couv-Billebaude.jpg Library Affronter: La Sixieme Extinction Billebaud Review No.13, Museé de la Chasse et de la Nature, Paris, France, 2018. www.chassenature.org/decouverte/revue-billebaude/ https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5262d831e4b0fe976f8d5ce9/1552770232385-5V6QUXE3OHQI1WLKQRA4/Glimmers+2.jpg Library Glimmers of the Radiant Real Jones, Ruth; Mogelonsky, Sam. Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery, Oshawa, 2018. rmg.on.ca | www.abcartbookscanada.com