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Holding Space by Samantha Dickie, Written on the Body, Art Gallery of Burlington, Burlington, ON

Excerpt from artgalleryofburlington.com

 

Holding Space is an exhibition of over 1000 ceramic components exploring our multi-faceted relationship with space – both physically and philosophically. Hung from the ceiling, suspended on the wall and standing tall – raw, abstracted forms interact within the installation as an interface between our human and spatial experiences; the relationship between the lived and the abstract or conceptual. Holding Space uses multi-component sculptures to prompt visual explorations of Space as Emptiness; Space as a Conduit for communication; and Space as held Containment.

 

Excerpt from samanthadickie.com:

 

Holding Space

 

A solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Burlington, Perry Gallery in Ontario, Canada, 2019/2020. The creation of this project was supported by a Visual Arts Grant from the BC Arts Council.

 

Space is where we live.

 

We cannot move without space. We cannot breathe without space.

 

We entangle ourselves with space and the space reshapes us.

Space is what we fill. Space is what we hold. Space is what we leave behind.

 

We are merged with the spaces around, between and inside of us.

 

My belief that our humanness is essentially rooted in relational dynamics provides the impetus behind using scale and multiples to create large-scale, multi-component groupings and immersive installations. As this attention to the relational is central to my work, dualities serve as a fulcrum for my practice and allow me to explore particular dyads such as subject/object, seen/unseen, individual/collective, viewer/viewed. Holding Space uses abstraction and expressionism to explore our multi-faceted relationship with space, both physically and philosophically.

 

This project considers notions of space with 3 assemblages (Still Point; Written on the Body; The Gesture of Grace):

 

WRITTEN ON THE BODY

 

Space as Containment. Negative space defines the body of the object where the exterior form acts as skin and bone to contain the enclosed space within, where our internal narratives are held, imprinted by the external world. 40 component wall assemblage, hung in a 22’ horizontal line. Referencing vertebrae, each unglazed porcelain rounded form touches the next with an connecting line of photo transfers.

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Uploaded on January 25, 2020
Taken on January 20, 2020