August 3, 2024
In
Vintage books, reclaimed chair, organic matter, unfired lake clay, tea bags, embroidered hair on organic cotton, lady bugs, handmade bunting
………
Room For Us All began as an inner dialogue and visual expression about feelings of isolation, loneliness and segregation. Working in my tiny garden studio, new to the small neighbourhood on the southern shores of Lake Huron during the overwhelming sense of muddy uncertainty that fermented from lock-downs and segregation, I found solace in reading, researching, drawing and imagining.
The initial elements were a single chair, a hand-embroidered piece of organic cotton, using my own trimmed hair to create whirling patterns of vines; dozens of collected vintage books, paper-clay cup and a small table on which the cotton was to be spread. As I started to settle and I worked to heal my anxiety with daily walks in nature, conversations with distant friends and processing my move back to Canada, the idea shifted into a surreal dreamscape, a visceral reckoning with elements both known and unknown.
Without the table, it presented itself as a more capacious blend of domestic and nature-made elements; an extension of the inner ramblings of shadow work and creativity. This is what entanglement means to me: connectivity interwoven with the joys and challenges of learning and discovering.
Installed in the gallery space, it is a gathering of sorts, a releasing of isolations and a coming together of disparate ideas, thoughts and in darker hours- fear, all while celebrating a deepening camaraderie with nature. I am fascinated with the concept of non-duality and what that encompasses. Here, where there is clearly one seat and a single cup, it is suggested through the title that we are interwoven with nature’s symbiotic energy alchemizing room for us all.
IN DISCUSSION : SIOBHÁN HUMSTON WITH SUSAN MADSEN
The following text is excerpted from a discussion between the artist and her long-time artist colleague and friend Susan Madsen in February 2024.
Initials SM and italic font indicates the words of Susan, and SH for Siobhán Humston.
SM I am looking at the stitched hair (Room For Us All); there is an edge of weirdness to it but it is very root-like looking and it seems to reference that quest for roots that is one of the big themes in the show. And the ceramic cup which is made from a pressed leaf mold but has a rootiness to it as well.
SH The curator brought up about hair being used for nests by birds, like when they find clumps of it laying around and also people often use it in compost, putting it in the garden, so then that ties into the context of the garden. I think that in a very practical sense, I ask what materials can I gather that are interesting; what do those materials say about the work. As Goethe was known to ask: where are you in the work? Where is the artist in the work? Then, what does it infuse the work with? For this project, every time I trimmed my hair I just kept it. It’s clean. It’s not knotted, it’s not tangled but it links into what can be done with hair. When I lived in the Okanagan I had my hair analyzed and it was one of the most fascinating things. I got back this long sheet of paper and on it was everything that this person had learned from one tiny lock of hair. It was incredible. I guess there is further excitement about using it for that underlying reason. I have questioned whether this piece even works both on its own, or within the context of all the other pieces. I won’t really know until it is installed but I think it being presented as a surreal dream-scape pulls the elements together to make it cohesive. I am interested in providing a unique spark for the imagination of the viewers. Allowing the hair embroidered floor piece to coexist with the woven organic chair, the bunting, dozens of lady bugs, the books, clay balls and broken branches makes for the setup of an intriguing open-ended tale.
Photography by Toni Hafkenscheid & the artist
