[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/seedpack.jpg” caption=”Seedpack is among the works by Susan Detwiler that will be on dislplay at the Museum’s Feral exhibition, which runs from June 26 to Aug. 30. Photo courtesy of Susan Detwiler.”]Artist Susan Detwiler explores our relationship with backyard wildlife in the Museum's summer exhibition, Feral. Her artistic practice is based on her daily observations of, and interactions with, the forested areas near her rural property in Moffat, Ont.

Feral is an innovative installation of 10 works made from repurposed materials, performative video, sculpture and drawing. While Detwiler's art exploits nostalgic ideas of the wild, it also plays on the importance of vision as a survival mechanism. Included in Feral are three sculptures with camouflage fabric mimicking a hunter's blind.

The viewer can stand, sit or lie down within the blind to view images of wildlife mounted on the gallery wall. The very act of bringing the blinds into a gallery setting repurposes them. In a gallery, camouflage draws attention to the person instead of hiding them.

Through her work, Detwiler has grown accustomed to shedding her prescribed societal roles as mother, artist and teacher in an effort to turn feral, exist in a natural, undomesticated state or revert to a wild state.

Detwiler studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and later received an MFA from the University of Guelph. She also earned a B.Ed. from the University of Windsor. Her work is represented in the collections of the Medicine Hat Museum, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, London Museum and Thames Art Gallery. She currently teaches students in the Full-Time Studies Program at the Dundas Valley School of Art.

Feral is supported by the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. It was originally presented at the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph. The exhibition catalogue includes writing by Detwiler and exhibition coordinator Dawn Owen.

The exhibition opens Thursday, June 26 with an Eco Art panel discussion in which Detwiler will participate and continues until Aug. 30.