Brendan George Ko Pololu Valley and Palms
Pololu Valley and Palms consists of images from the ongoing series A Stranger In Two Worlds by Brendan George Ko. The artist photographs plants of the two places he considers home – Ontario and Hawai’i – as a way of marking his memories and recording the botanical differences of the locations that he moves between. This project is not intended to be a study of ecology in life-like accuracy but rather a personal scrapbook exploring colour and exposure creating otherworldly portraits. His interest in plants started in 2013 when he was developing his thesis exhibition, Aloha, studying the ecology of Hawai’i and using plants as a metaphor for human adaptation in the archipelago. Presented as a large format diptych printed on vinyl, Pololu Valley and Palms are images of Hawai’i, evoking a sense of warmth, contemplation and wanderlust.
Brendan George Ko is a visual storyteller working in photography, video, installation, text, and sound. His work conveys a sense of experience through storytelling, and he describes the image as supplementary to the story it represents. In 2010, Ko received his BFA from the Ontario College of Art & Design University, where he majored in photography, and he went on to the Master of Visual Studies programme at the University of Toronto, where his practice focused on video and sound.