Of, In or Under
Working with the concept of material fluidity and boundless-ness, sacred spaces and ritual, and the theological nature of nature, I made approximately 200 green sculptures and cast objects. They were installed in a custom built room within Forest City Gallery.
Special thanks to Neil Klassen for his excellent woodworking and installation skills, and The Canada Council for the Arts for their generous support.
Of, In or Under is an immersive installation consisting of more than 200 green objects, sculptures, materials, forms, and entities.
It is a universe, a cosmos, simultaneously exterior and interior, natural and artificial, human and non-human, primordial and contemporary. This multi-sensorial world contains organic elements, such as plants and insects, banal goods including toilet paper and dishes, and frogs, snakes, snails, branches, fingers...The installation is a place-within-a-place-within-a-place, echoed by its inhabitants: owls carry other birds and fingers grow from fingers.
*Photo credit: Laura Findlay
**Special thanks to The Canada Council for the Arts and The Ontario Arts Council, and Neil Klassen
Cast rubber mushroom with cast finger and faux flowers
Rubber-covered cattails in plywood
Rubber-covered branches with dried blossoms in plywood
“In a world of shifting subjectivities, a lexis for interpretation can be useful. Language shifts as we evolve, creating new dictions to communicate both the internal and external parameters of our minds. In “Of, In or Under”, a transformation is underway; a vocabulary is necessary to help me circumnavigate the space. That which was one thing, slowly shifts before my eyes into something else. An etymology reveals itself…
…Cave: a chamber that carries many secrets. It’s dry and free from moisture, enclosed and surrounded by green 4 x 4’s…
…Frog: a tailless amphibian body suspended in a state of vacillation…
…Green: Everything is green…”
Detail of the five tree-like sculptures positioned as totems in the installation.
A hearth/fire pit centers the exhibition surrounded by found objects that indicate a kitchen and/or nourishment.
The fire pit is made entirely from cast rubber bricks, rocks and over 10,000 cast pebbles.
“The task at hand is a biography, of sorts, of green. Which green?
Given the context, with our mindset influenced by the sheer materiality of the objects before us, surely we can assume that we aren’t talking about the green that we enter like an atmosphere? It can’t be the spectral one that blends with us without touching us? It’s not the one that is as ethereal as a mood?
No, it is a thick green we can touch. It has wet (slick) and dry (scratchy) aspects. If we stick our hand in it before it sets, it will coagulate and smother. In another incarnation, it might crystallize, so as to encrust. We might decide when to touch it, but it decides when to let go of us…”
‘Reserves/Curiosity Shop’, approximately 150-200 cast rubber snails, acorns, seedpods, fingers, hands, mussels, shells, frogs, snakes, mushrooms, crystals, candies, diamonds, rice cakes, gourds, donuts and found objects
“[Who she is][Where she was born][How she does what she does (specifics)][Where she works][Accolades][Recent projects][Affiliations]
Birth (Likely)
We are all one of many, but she was one of many many. In the cool deep, flush with algae and other nice things to eat, she was conceived (the electric connection of two good plans, two clouds in the water). Some 20,000 siblings forming a gooey raft of tiny incubators: clear, round membranes swole like a gasp on contact with the outside. Each centre a tiny dark pupil: the twinkle in the water’s eye. They are one and many, a ropy strand. A clutching of pearls in the shadows under the green glass surface…”
‘The Taker’, hydrostone, sand, paper mache, rubber, feathers, resin
‘Come Inside’, hydrostone, sand, rubber, resin, found bird, feathers
‘Me and My Earth Cult (Owl-as-Self-Portrait) 1-37, thirty-seven found owls resurfaced in sand, paper mache, rubber, resin, epoxy-putty and found objects
‘Dating Dionysus’, hydrocal, sand, rubber, resin, found objects
‘Rations’, found objects, resin, earth, plastic bags, cords, hooks
Rubber-covered feathers in plywood
‘Same as Grass and Grow 1’, hydrocal, rubber, found faux plants
‘Our Habitable W(h)ole’ 3, found objects, faux plants, resin, rubber
‘Same as Grass and Grow 2’, hyrdocal, rubber, faux plants, resin
‘——’, found objects, sand, paper mache, resin, epoxy-putty, bark,
Found objects, sand, glue
dimensions variable
