By Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The Earth, its splendour, and its respective eras have been ongoing themes at the Art Gallery of Burlington (AGB) in the year 2025 so far. Firstly, the gallery has been exhibiting “Time Isn’t Real” since January 17, featuring a group of artists whose speciality is individualized creative feats with the moldable medium of clay. Now, the gallery is also looking to educate the people of Burlington on where these precious resources come from and how we can tend to the land that provides them. Hence, the AGB’s “Rock Star” lecture series, a combination of in-person and online educational events that provide vital information for maintaining our responsibility for caring for the planet.
One of the lectures, titled “Timefulness: Learning to see the world in four dimensions,” took place on Wednesday, March 19 from 6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m. It was organized by the AGB’s senior curator Suzanne Carte as an online Zoom lecture, allowing accessibility for those who couldn’t commute to the physical space for any reason. The speaker was Dr. Marcia Bjornerud, who holds the distinction of being a professor of geosciences and environmental studies at Lawrence University in Wisconsin. She is also a widely published author of books and articles on her field of expertise, having been featured in The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal, and The Los Angeles Times, among others. Speaking from across the border, Bjornerud emphasized Ontario and her own home state’s bond via the long Niagara Escarpment. “We are closely connected, despite the geographical distance,” she said. Political strife divides us now, but topography holds us together long-term.
Throughout her lecture, Bjornerud sought to acquaint attendees with the idea of “timefulness” and how a mature awareness of the Earth’s aging process can positively impact our relationship with where we live. Bjornerud claims that too many people live in “time denial” and try to combat the natural effects of time on ourselves and the Earth with environmental manipulation, expensive products, and plastic surgery. She also maintains that many people are generally uneducated about their surroundings and behave like “bad tourists” by draining resources, ignoring climate change, and allowing their attention spans to be diluted by technology. It is, her lecture established, in companies’ best interest for people to ignore time. It’s profitable for business.
Bjornerud’s lecture style strives to weave philosophy into her scientific foundations and doesn’t exclude the notion that scientific facts and religious beliefs can co-exist. Bjornerud also expresses a wish for universal planetary issues to take more precedence over temporary socio-political divides in the near future.
“My hope in doing lectures like this is to give people a portal into the way that geologists see the world, which is in four dimensions,” Bjornerud spoke out after the lecture was concluded. “People haven’t had the opportunity to understand how the planet works, and that’s unfortunate for practical reasons, but also in a sense for spiritual reason. We don’t know who we are as earthlings.”
“I want to make people understand the habits of mind that characterize the way that geologists see the world,” Bjornerud commented further. “And that includes being able to read landscapes and rocks and to see them as animate in some ways.”
For those who missed Bjornerud’s lecture, or who wish to explore the concept of “timefulness” further, Bjornerud published a book in 2020 through the Princeton University Press titled Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World. More recently, in 2024, she published Turning to Stone: Discovering the Subtle Wisdom of Rocks through Flatiron Books. She encourages interested prospective buyers to buy from their local bookstores if they can, but the books are also available for online order on Amazon.
Precious metals is next on the Art Gallery of Burlington’s bounty of the Earth agenda. On Friday, April 4, 2025, they will host the STACK Collection launch event to introduce jewellery designer Claudine Moncion and her collection of unique and practical jewellery pieces.
