Erratic Behaviour is an exhibition that brings together contemporary artworks that centre human entanglements with geologic events, processes or entities, acknowledging rocks as vibrant matter that shape our understanding of time and place. While some artworks playfully evoke the animacy of boulders and rocks, others point to a world that is increasingly shaped by the climate crisis and faced with dwindling resources. The dual meaning of the exhibition’s title suggests that humans themselves are exhibiting the most ‘erratic behaviour’ of all—the industrial extraction, processing, consumption and disposal of natural resources has produced turbulent and unstable conditions. Many of the artworks brought together here resist dominant patterns of waste and consumption through a shared commitment to working with existing, found, abandoned, salvaged and reclaimed materials. The featured artists offer a range of experimental approaches to the geologic, situating themselves and the viewer within the dynamic accumulation, erosion, flow, extraction and transformation of earth materials.

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Artists: Catherine Telford Keogh, Diane Borsato, Kelly Jazvac, Laura Moore, Meghan Price, Robert Hengeveld, Tahir Carl Karmali, Tsēmā Igharas

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This exhibition is presented with the support of Women of Influence for Women’s Art (WIWA).

All images: Installation view, Erratic Behaviour at Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, 27 January to 21 April 2024. Photo courtesy of KWAG, by Toni Hafkenscheid.