The Fifty Fifty presents, Arboretum, in collaboration with The Bonnie Mccomb Kreye residency and funded by The BC Arts Council. Arboretum is an incubation system that investigates the quiet nuance of Blue as a concept and material practice. It traverses both physical and metaphysical realms while maintaining various intersections of gender and ancestral histories. Cultivation of traditional paint-making + embroidery creates a biotope that provides fertile ground for the creation of “future relics”. Each work functions as a specimen to be used in cultural anthropology and while it exists in its own timeline, the entanglement with Blue and Blueness occurs at varying proximity. Historically mined in Afghanistan since the 7th millennium BC, Lapis Lazuli is the pigment used to create Ultramarine Blue. The color serves as a cultural monolith and thread: weaving together various narratives while simultaneously creating new ones.The Blue nurtures a forest filled with portals that transport viewers to the in-between spaces of layered complexities regarding identity, culture, and history. These intersections find a home in Arboretum; rooted in the alchemy that gives rise to speculative landscapes.