Exhibition up & running!
After two years of making and preparing the In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown it opened to the public on April 19th.
From the commissioned essay by west coast artist and curator Rosa Quintana-Lillo:
Siobhán Humston’s exhibition In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown is a curated world of found materials, drawings, sculptures, installations, photography, projected film and assemblage. It resembles the realm of a garden: at first complex, but, when inspected, a world to be understood as ordered, vital and necessary. As Humston has interpreted and translated meaning and ideas through her process, the “how” of her collaboration is of utmost importance. She creates with a sense of curiosity, wonder and responsibility, and with a strong sense of place. Fully immersed in her landscape, Humston connects to place with a daily swimming practice, gardens tended and beach miles combed. After years of art residencies and exhibitions in Europe, New Zealand and across North America, Humston moved to the shores of Lake Huron in Ontario, living on the land of her parents’ beautifully tended one-acre garden. Within the works of In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown there is a feeling of deep respect for home, where manual skills get passed from parent to child -sewing, embroidery, the growing of flowers and food. In this way, the works feel like a rediscovery of childhood, with Humston constantly paying attention to small details – those things we explore with our senses as children do.
Welcome Wall, 21 x 10 ft I 640 x 305 cm (photo credit Toni Hafkenscheid www.thphotos.com)
The text seen in the photo above was originally written as ideas for the show were coming together. I shared it, along with other sketchbook diagrams and photographs of work in progress, with curator Sonya Blazek. She had made two visits to my small barn studio and held a fascination for one wall on which was pinned leaves, petals, bones, feathers, sketches, written sentences nestled among several stringed instruments. After the dates were set, and the measurements of walls decided upon, Sonya suggested that the 21′ wall that stands opposite the gallery elevator could replicate the feel of that studio wall. This is some of what is written in graphite on the wall.
Here is the sharing of ideas; observed poetics planted deep and with love.
This is Garden as curated space, as entangled with humanity.
The exquisite is the exchange of observations, ideas, emotions. Connections.
Of joy. Of discovery. Of planting seeds. . .
There is a balance between darkness and light, and within the unknown.
There is a gap for memories to lodge, and a bridge from where you were
-all the places and times you were not-
to all the places and times you are and will be.
We build these moments into a vessel for our tomorrow.
We float or walk, remain or evolve, growing toward this sweet, ubiquitous unknown.
I described the show when it was in its planning stages as “themed around phenomenological aspects of becoming intimate with nature through a lens of light and dark, life and death; through what is seen, imagined and touched. It will be a multi-sensory presentation, sharing an immersive, qualitative experience aimed at exploring ideas of connection to our natural world through wonder and inquisitiveness, through work highlighting both beauty and demise. Stories of entanglement and the interweaving of nature and humanity.”
The results are pretty close to this description, affording those who love nature a vessel for their affection, and for others it may be an invitation to investigate further. It presents a liminal place to wonder in and to be embraced by.
Short video: In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown walk through
Installation view from left: First You Must Learn to Fly, Home (front), I feel I know you (behind), After Life, Welcome Wall, We Are the Seeds (Photo credit Toni Hafkenscheid www.thphotos.com)
Installation view from left: Room For Us All, Root Masses, We Are the Seeds #43, From the Garden to the Sea (photo credit Toni Hafkenscheid www.thphotos.com)
In conversation with the artist Thursday, April 20 7:00 pm
Methods for Creative Making workshop Sunday, April 16th 11:00am – 3:00pm
Please call or drop into the gallery to register for events.
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery
147 Lochiel Street, Sarnia, Ontario, N7T 0B4
519-336-8127
