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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

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.