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August 3, 2024 In

After Life 2024

Peach tree, hosta leaves, assorted ephemera
Size variable

The sculptural installation After Life, which features a well-preserved peach tree suspended upside down in the centre of the gallery space, suggests ideas of transcendence, being uprooted and displaced while still possessing a strange elegance. The tree lightly turns from the gentle airflow of visitors to the space, shadows dancing above a gathering of circular forms arranged on the floor below it.

With the nest of dried hosta leaves that extends from a truncated centre branch, this piece works as a metaphor for the vast gifts that spill from life, even after the physical form is expired. Or about entanglement and interconnectedness, about beauty in all its forms. After Life disrupts observational expectations, presenting an invitation to embrace all aspects of the human experience; to shed the muddy confines of fear and delight in the wonderment of our existence.

 

Photography credit Toni Hafkenscheid & the artist

August 3, 2024 In

Home 2024

Found nests, eggshells, dogwood branches, zinnia petals, plinths

Collected between 2021 and 2024
Sizes variable

 

August 3, 2024 In

One Hibiscus, Two Seasons 2023

Collected & dried hibiscus petals
Seven discs ranging in size from 7.4 to 53.3 cm l 3 to 21 in

 

For two consecutive summers I collected every flower with its richly pigmented petals from one single hibiscus plant situated within view from my studio. I carefully pressed and wrapped them individually in parchment paper huddled into a paper box. After pinning some of them to a wall in my work space, thinking ahead to the scheduled exhibition, I realized they would not survive too many trials of this process so I had the idea to sew each petal to cut out circular shapes from discarded screen door material.

After many attempts and iterations, this seems to have worked to highlight both the lush colour and delicate texture of the petals held together vulnerably but effectively.

 

 

 

Photography credit Toni Hafkenscheid

 

 

August 3, 2024 In

The Long Story 2023

Thousands of collected, sorted pine needles, found rope, embroidery thread, drift wood
304.8 x 58.4 x 58.4 cm l 120 x 23 x 23 in

 

From the Judith & Norman Art Gallery commissioned essay by Rosa Quintana Lillo:

“To build the sculpture The Long Story (2024), Humston wrapped thousands of collected and categorized pine needles with embroidery thread around an eight-foot length of flotsam rope hung from her studio ceiling. She began by sitting on the floor, then moved up the vertically situated rope, balancing on a ladder for the upper section. This piece marries vulnerability and boldness, perhaps presenting a perfect metaphor to describe our natural world. It speaks to Humston’s desire to work with existing organic materials that could be returned to the garden/forest/beach to be composted and not be made into more “stuff,” with manufactured products that end up in a landfill site. This work and others equally speak to Humston’s family history and stories told and passed down through generations. Her mother was a “war baby,” having been raised during and after the Second World War in England. She grew up with rations and learned early in life to preserve, reuse and repurpose everything. Transferring from mother to child, the ideas of sewing and mending, creating something beautiful from “waste” have also influenced and inspired Humston’s work.”

 

August 3, 2024 In

From the Garden to the Sea 2023

Iris flower sheaths, dried lilies, thread, driftwood
178 x 32 cm l 70 x 13 in

 

From the Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery commissioned essay by Rosa Quintana Lillo:
“The assemblage works From the Garden to the Sea (2023), The Long Story (2024), Garden Queens (2023) and Home (2021–24) are constructed with flower petals, pine needles, eggshells, twigs and branches. All are organic, impermanent materials. At first glance, perhaps Humston assembled the materials in order to analyze or inspect. Under a more sustained gaze, it appears that the materials themselves are being re-presented to us in a new and experimental light. The materials hold meaning; they demonstrate their story.”

 

 

 

Photography Toni Hafkenscheid & the artist

August 17, 2022 In

Samara Forms 2021

Hot days by the lake, fallen cliff clay, hundred of maple leaf keys saved and sorted.

Forms observed and expanded upon.

Clay rehydrated, used to adhere keys to form.

Thinking of nature and its unending gifts.
Thinking of being earthbound with dreams of flying.

Thinking of disintegration and rejuvenation.
Of balance and beauty in repetition.

Of transforming determined, fallen seed pods into weighted shapes
appearing just about ready to take flight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

July 14, 2021 In

The Shape of Longing 2019

The Shape of Longing
Slip cast paper-clay bowls with slip cast elements of nature (bones, feathers, seaweed, moss, insects, shells etc)
113 pieces, each 8 – 15 cm

Curiosity, delight and a pensive hush filled the gallery room while for many the desire to touch the pieces was substantial. In this piece, what appears to be lost is actually simply transitioned, and what is recognizable lays in perfect quietude held gently within the bowls, ranging from elegant to broken down.

One paper-clay slip cast vessel containing a slip cast flower began an experiment to see if something delicate and natural could survive the thousand degree temperature of a kiln firing. The Shape of Longing became an ongoing project of discovery coupled with a formulated desire to record and save elements of my surroundings and recent experiences. To make precious the small intricacies and to ultimately draw an audience in to look closely, to consider, to question, and to be hyper aware of the fragility of what was before them turned my insular investigation into a exquisite shared experience.

 

October 5, 2019 In

Braving the Anthropocene 2019

Braving the Anthropocene: Air, Fire, Earth, Ether & Water
Reclaimed sports helmets with found natural elements such as pheasant feathers, branches, dragonfly, beech seed pods, burnt wood & ashes, flies, paperclay branches, discarded bird nest section, shuttle cock feathers
Sizes variable

Thinking of the climate crisis, and of our disappearing environment, presenting questions about tenacity, fragility, resilience and beauty. Thinking of the human attempt to act as guardians.
Thinking of respect and honouring the land.
Thinking of both hope and fear for the future; thinking of the confluence of man-made with nature.
Thinking of how these helmets, each representing an element: Air, Fire, Earth, Ether and Water, represent the intertwining with natural worlds around us, the battle for ourselves and for our survival.

 

 

October 1, 2019 In

The Voyagers 2019

 

Taxidermy pigeon, 280+ hand-built paper clay branches, discarded fishing net
260 x 108 x 58 cm

Creating hundreds of paper clay, oxide stained branches to waive into the discarded fishing net extends the visual story of the pigeon from being simply in flight to one of rescue or relief. To what end have these branches been collected? While they are symbolic of nature as a whole, they also represent the cycle of gathering materials with which to create a home.
There is a tension between the branches that are suspended being carried away on a mission, and those left trailing in a precarious position on the gallery floor close to the footsteps and actions of the gallery audience. I am interested in this interactive narrative which mirrors life, the audience holding the potential for contrasting roles as the observer, caretaker and destroyer.
While the word could signify the animal kingdom, the hand-built branches, ranging in colour from a dark charcoal grey to almost white, represent the struggles of the natural environment on both land and sea (forest fires and coral bleaching). Emotions stemming from this piece range from hope to vulnerability, affording the viewer an intimate reflective moment in the current climate crisis.

May 21, 2019 In

Ways to Speak with Trees 2018

Sculptural installation | Cut, found wood, fishing line
Private commission | Sunshine Coast, British Columbia, Canada