These pieces were made to be seen in person, and also to spark discussion and collaboration opportunities. My work is increasingly moving toward a performative, relational practice, as I do my level best to integrate what I know from my experience and Masters in Community Music with my work in the studio. Anyone else want to play with this? Write to me!
For exhibition, collaboration and artist talk/workshop enquiries (after January 2023): keira@keiramcarthur.ca
During lockdowns in 2020 and 2021 I made a series of small pieces on paper which evoked, for me, the profound sense of isolation and shock we were experiencing in the world, in separation and in communion. (see Conversation Piece)
The four large scale pieces for this Centre3 show are made from canvas I used as a backdrop for eight years of paintings in my former studio, which I white-washed, leaving some echoes of the marks and colour beneath, like memories receding, but not quite gone. Over these I drew four images that for me were resonant with the responses I received to my publicly installed question, “What’s different for you, since the Lockdowns?”, and in many many conversations with people on front lines, in construction, and in health care. Overwhelmingly, these responses expressed a resilience I had not expected, an optimism, ingenuity and even joy that to me is intrinsically human.
The four large pieces are entitled “resilience’; ‘loss’, ‘optimism’; and ‘freedom’. Two smaller pieces are also in the exhibition, one with as many responses on as would fit, and another 12″square piece simply entitled ‘Yes.’.
For colour over the white wash and charcoal drawings I used natural inks I’d made from Logwood, Apple, Buckthorn, Acacia and Brazilwood trees, cochineal bugs, marigold and weld flowers, and iron gall ink made from wine and ferrous sulphate mixed with natural pigment. These inks are made for use on paper, and are not lightfast. I used them here to express the ephemeral nature of our own perceptions and beliefs; these colours are meant to shift and change over time, just as we do.
For exhibition and artist talk enquiries after January 2023: keira@keiramcarthur.ca