Intervene: Land Art Residency
STEPS Public Art, in partnership with the Victoria Arts Council, presents Intervene—a unique land-based art project situated within the traditional territories of the Malahat, Cowichan, Tsawout, Tsartlip, and Pauquachin Nations, in what is known today as Mill Bay, BC. Led by artist David Martinello and featuring the work of Lycia Trouton, Derk Wolmuth, Christi York, and Katelyn Atkins, Intervene was an immersive, inquiry-driven workshop where art emerges in direct dialogue with the land, and was part of the 2025 STEPS Public Art Residency.
Project at a glance
Location: Mill Bay, BC.
Artists:
Led by artist David Martinello and featuring the work of Lycia Trouton, Derk Wolmuth, Christi York, and Katelyn Atkins.
Documentarian: Dillon Lew’chuk
Year: 2025
Services: Artist Capacity Building
5
artist-in-residence
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series of public artworks
About Intervene: Land Art Residency
STEPS Public Art, in partnership with the Victoria Arts Council, presented Intervene—a unique land-based art project situated within the traditional territories of the Malahat, Cowichan, Tsawout, Tsartlip, and Pauquachin Nations, in what is known today as Mill Bay, BC.
Led by artist David Martinello and featuring the work of Lycia Trouton, Derk Wolmuth, Christi York, and Katelyn Atkins, Intervene was an immersive, inquiry-driven workshop where art emerges in direct dialogue with the land. Rooted in the belief that the natural world is both collaborator and teacher, the program encourages artists to listen deeply, respond intuitively, and create in ways that honour place and environment.
Drawing inspiration from Shawnigan Creek and its surrounding ecosystem, a select group of invited artists created temporary, site-specific installations using found and natural materials. These works highlight the resilience of the land while offering new ways for the public to experience the interconnections between art, nature, and community. Taking place from August 13–16, 2025, the program brought together guest speakers, dedicated studio time, and rich conversations that fostered exchange between artists and audiences. The experience culminates in an on-site public presentation, inviting the wider community to walk the land, encounter the artworks, and reflect on the ways in which creativity and ecology intersect.
David Martinello
Plant Pieces
spruce, maple, dye
Employing our innate connection to wood and drawing on the overlap between art and craft, David’s work considers the value of timber and its impact on both natural and built environments. By reflecting on the labour and legacy of trees, his practice encourages a deeper relationship with the land—one that acknowledges not only the material benefits trees provide, but also the cultural, ecological, and spiritual dimensions of our engagement with them. Through this lens, his artworks invite a more holistic understanding of how we interact with and depend upon the living world.
Christi York
Flax Arcana
flax, clothesline, maple, earth
Once widely understood, plant-based technologies now seem almost mysterious—like a fairytale of spinning straw into gold. Today, most of us are far removed from both the processes and the impacts of modern textile production. While natural fibres are biodegradable, synthetic ones endure in landfills for generations, creating a disconnect that hides the true cost of textile waste.
Flax Arcana reflects this fragile balance. Each loop or braid holds the next bundle of flax in place; remove one and the structure unravels, symbolizing the tension and tipping point in our relationship with the planet. Left in situ, the work continues to change over time: as its 100 bundles of flax slowly decompose, the soil beneath receives the fallen seeds, renewing the cycle of growth.
Derk Wolmuth
Palisade
cedar, fir, yew
This work reflects on the ways trees, once living organisms with spiraling cambium and phloem, continue to shape human life after they fall. As material, wood is split, floated, and shaped—yielding its structure for use in foundations, supports, and shelter, as well as in the objects and surfaces that hold daily life. From architecture to furniture, from containers to monuments, trees provide the physical frameworks through which we live, gather, and reflect. This piece acknowledges the essential role of the vegetative world in sustaining and grounding human experience.
Katelyn Nicole Atkins
Transcript
sod, topsoil, mud
Transcript is a visual record of an exchange between artist Katelyn and a red cedar tree on August 14, 2025. Inspired by Taoist practices of tree communication, Katelyn engaged in a meditation that created a flow of energy between her body and the tree. She mapped this connection by tracing lines barefoot in the earth, later carving channels into the sod and shaping them with mud. The work reflects on reciprocity with the natural world and reminds us that, like the cedar, we too belong to the earth.
Lycia Trouton
Fernbed Vases
leaves, architectural found formwork
Two inverted pylons made from fern leaves, enclosed in sleek aluminum, are the result of a careful process of topiary—cutting back, arranging, and stacking the foliage into sculptural form. This method highlights the ways in which human hands shape, order, and transform natural materials, creating objects that sit at the intersection of art, design, and environmental intervention. While visually striking, the pylons also function as records of human influence on the landscape. By reconfiguring plant life into geometric, industrially framed forms, the work draws attention to the tension between natural growth and imposed structure. At the same time, it raises broader questions about ethno-botany, resource use, and the cultural practices through which people interact with and assign meaning to plant life. These works encourage viewers to consider how everyday acts of trimming, pruning, or cultivating vegetation are not only aesthetic choices but also ecological and cultural ones. In doing so, they remind us of the ongoing dialogue between human activity and the living environment that sustains us.
“By being a champion of the arts, STEPS provided an environment in which I could foster investigations into my practice as an artist and curator while working within a communal environment and in line with the residency’s intent.”
Funders
The 2025 STEPS Public Art Residency is made possible by support from TD Bank Group through the TD Ready Commitment.
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