Spirit Comes Alive, series of 24 drawings
Watercolour, graphite, coloured pencils on tracing paper vellum
20.32 cm square I 8 in square
In situ, Hugo Burge Foundation Marchmont Estate, Scotland
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In the studio
Raw pigment, egg tempera, graphite on reclaimed wood
Sizes variable, between 20 – 78 cm I 8 – 30 inches
Embroidered braille with wool, embroidery thread & string on reclaimed sheer curtain, driftwood Projected photograph
228.6 x 276.9 cm I 90 x 109 in
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Through the embroidered braille phrase I feel I know you, there is a suggestion toward the sense of touch as one would use when reading braille. Each circular character is stitched to appear like a lush forest floor, highly tactile and evocative of something beyond the communication of the words it represents. On the opposite side, in embroidered cursive reads ‘I feel I know you too’, suggesting a response and an interwoven relationship between the known and unknown. It calls for use beyond the five surface senses to access our emotive sensibilities, drawing ourselves into more expansive, incorporeal realms.
With the projected floral shadows and gently moving light source combined with its semi-transparent fabric, this re-purposed sheer curtain also speaks to what may lay beyond our line of vision, delving into the realm of possibilities. From this piece there is an invitation to return to nature where immersive and healing experiences can provide us with further connection to each other and ourselves.
Within this piece is a personal reference to my mother who many years ago lost her eyesight first in one eye, then the other, yet through a number of meticulous surgeries, cumbersome post-op regimens and natural remedies, regained the ability to see albeit without centre acuity. Now in her mid-eighties she maintains a dedicated gardening routine, inspiring everyone who experiences her colourful, sprawling garden. Her love of nature, the healing arts and her skills with sewing and knitting continue to inspire my own creative journey and through this piece it is my wish that others may also find their way into the garden, the forest, the lakeshore and our wild, spectacular natural environment.
Photography by the artist & Toni Hafkenscheid
Vintage books, reclaimed chair, organic matter, unfired lake clay, tea bags, embroidered hair on organic cotton, lady bugs, handmade bunting
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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
Peach tree, hosta leaves, assorted ephemera
Size variable
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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
Collected & dried root masses with plant intact
In situ, In the Garden of Exquisite Unknown exhibition
Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery Sarnia, Canada
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I have always been intrigued by what lies under the surface, and further, what may be guiding growth that we cannot see or even sense at all. I began collecting these root masses before I had a studio, and before plans for this exhibition began to take form. I knew I loved looking closely, and I knew that when I photographed and shared them, others did too.
Part of my role as an artist is to share and to gather broadly while treading softly. This gathering of plants, pulled from their place or found already expired, speaks of a small portion of the mystery of nature’s magnificence, just touching the surface of what we perceive transpires out of our sight as well as our minds.
Photographs by artist & Toni Hafkenscheid
32 drawings
Graphite, graphite paint on paper
42 x 59 cm I 16.5 x 23 in
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For this series of thirty-two drawings, I used pressed botanical pieces salvaged from experiments with boiled prints to draw from, arranging them from top to end, creating an enclosed space. These contemplative drawings reminded me of staring into space on a clear night when you see a layer of stars, then another and another. The endless perceivable space contained by the objects within our periphery is the gap of unknown, the divine matrix or the dream state where the musical overlaps with the tangible. In some small way, these pieces represent those possibilities.
Braving the Anthropocene: Air, Earth, Ether, Fire & Water
Reclaimed sports helmets with found natural elements : pheasant feathers, branches, dragonfly, beech seed pods, burnt wood & ashes, flies, paperclay branches, discarded bird nest section, shuttle cock feathers
Sizes variable
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Thinking of tenacity, fragility, resilience and beauty. Thinking of the human attempt to act as guardians.
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 entanglement with our surrounding natural worlds, the battle within ourselves and for humanity.
Adventures in Transportation & Meditation, 2014
10 in series
Acrylic, graphite paint & graphite on wood panel, self framed
119.4 x 122 cm I 47 x 48 in
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The Adventures in Transportation & Meditation paintings are a fascination with the collision of natural environment and man-made elements, represented here by vintage cars and architectural drawings. Raised as the only girl with three older brothers and thinking of road trips, dreamscapes, and environmental challenges, I love imagining new places for the viewer to enter into contemplation. Curiously devoid of a human component, the vehicle propels into or away from deliberately ambiguous and geographically anachronistic natural elements, raising the questions “Where are we going?” and “What are we leaving behind?”
These paintings represent the more surreal and adventurous aspects of our life full of journeys, challenges and creativity. You know yourself the dreams I mean . . .
Elissa Cristall Gallery, Vancouver Canada November 2013 (sold)
Evolution Series
Acrylic, graphite and graphite paint on panel
121.9 x 91.4 cm I 48 x 36 in
50.8 x 50.8 cm I 20 x 20 in
25.4 x 25.4 cm I 10 x 10 in
60.9 x 71.1 cm I 24 x 28 in