ARTIST STATEMENT

My research considers the porous relationship between material and method. As a sculptor and maker, the exciting opportunities that occur while exploring connections between methodology and material drives my practice forward. Medium that retains touch and memory through various modes are employed when creating art that is instinctual and self-reflective. Exploring elemental entanglement, my work considers the potentialities of process, expressing an affinity between art and alchemy. We are surrounded by many ‘things’ in the world; how can sculpture endeavor to provide a divergent relation with objects and the material they are made from?

Materially, the resulting sculptural work investigates extracted elements, geological histories, and their use in world-building. Plaster, cement, ceramics, copper, glass, and stone, all materials employed when building infrastructures are employed throughout. Sculpture, whether monumental or intimate, operates on a metaphorical level as a convergent link to an elemental world.

Additionally, my research troubles itself to examine ways in which place is entwined with embedded lived histories as informed by matters of race, gender, capitalism, and settler colonization. From a grounded position as a mother, artist and human that consciously chooses to live on and with the earth, I approach my materials with respect and curiosity; through my labor and care, the work I make weaves a dialogue between material, place, and time.

ARTIST BIO

D’Andrea Bowie is an artist living and working in the Whitchurch-Highlands, located in rural outskirts of Toronto. Her current research investigates alchemical potential of extracted world building elements, specifically through an eco-feminist and materialistic lens that de-centers the human; highlighting reciprocity between maker, material and time. D’Andrea has recently completed a Master of Fine Arts from York University where she was awarded a SSHRC Research Scholarship, CGS Master’s Scholarship and the Susan Crocker and John Hunkin Award. While raising her children, D’Andrea completed a BFA at OCADU over the course of eight years in Sculpture & Installation where she was the recipient of numerous scholarships and awards. Her projects have received support from the Ontario Arts Council and in 2024 she attended Pilchuck Glass School with the support of a Chalmer’s Professional Development Grant. Her work has been included in multiple group shows, community spaces and alternative outdoor spaces. She has held solo exhibitions in commercial and public galleries, most recently, Fall to Center at the Aird Gallery in Toronto.

As I live and love on this land and commit to caring for it, I acknowledge the people who have been stewards of it for time immemorial. We stand on the traditional lands of many nations including the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishnabeg, the Chippewa, the Haudenosaunee and the Wendat peoples; the GTA  continues to be home to many diverse First Nations people. The area I reside in is covered by Treaty 13 signed with the Mississaugas of the Credit, and the Williams Treaties signed with multiple Mississaugas and Chippewa bands. We are also part of the Dish With One Spoon  Treaty, an agreement to share and protect the land so that no one’s dish is ever empty. As I continue to figure out how to be a good treaty person, learning and speaking of its history helps keep its inhabitants human and non in living memory. The land we stand on holds a deep geological history which bears acknowledging, I express gratitude to the rocks and minerals that remain beneath our feet and those extracted to build and power this crazy world around us and from which I make my art.

“I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors.” Carl Jung in Memories, Dreams, Reflection.