resilience
Resilience speaks to the nurturing of our inner strengths through times of crisis. Finding a path to access our interior coals and blowing gently over them, fueling our plasticity.
Resilience by Fiona DuthieCraft Council of British Columbia
Materiality is key here- charred wood, natural ink, feltedpaper, ceramics. Common materials transformed through crisisor challenge but emerging stronger for the experience. These materials are combined in wall tiles with bold contrasts in values and textures.
The simple forms hold potential, commitment, boundaries and strength.
The installation is made up of 148 blocks or wall tiles. The abstract patterning in the blocks begins in a unified arrangement.
A few small shifts in positioning reflect life transitions; flowing, abrupt, jarring, activating.
Viewers are encouraged to exchange blocks and alter the patterning. These changes and shifts are unforeseen and undirected, but the installation maintains its visual integrity. Resilience.
Resilience provides me with the opportunity to expand my practice, exploring the materiality and artistic potential of the traditional craft media of wool, paper, wood, ink and ceramic. I began this work 5 years ago, and in 2018 focused on these processes in creating works for my exhibition, Big Ink, in Australia.
In Australia and in forests burnt by fires here in BC, I continued to develop the work, collecting charred wood from recent brushfires to create inks that connect us to the geography and history of that place.
This body of work has led me to make wild collections to create natural inks, from both soot and other materials.
This exhibition explores the processes of Japanese shou sugi ban (charring wood), combining joomchi, or traditional Korean papermaking, with felting, the making of natural inks, and using these inks in the new felt paper and ceramic surfaces.
This multidisciplinary approach takes my work and practice far beyond the realm of traditional feltmaking that I have worked in for the last 20 years.
Resilience by Fiona DuthieCraft Council of British Columbia
Fiona Duthie has a full time studio pratice based on Salt Spring Island, BC.
Learn more about the artist in her interview HERE
Photography: Sarah Duggan
