GRIT is an exhibition of sculpture, found objects and ready-mades, created and assembled throughout the past two years in the Department of Visual Arts and Art History at York University towards a Masters in Fine Art. GRIT, takes multiple meanings and is used throughout to explore material connection and resolve. Materially, grit is the substance worked with in the studio in all its fantastic forms. Clay, glass, and various bags of dust extracted from the earth, utilized in specific ways, combined with heat and entropy, provide opportunities for alchemical transformations as the seemingly limitless potentiality of an elemental world is explored. Grit is the granite dust released from granite boulders hidden since the last ice age saved after rock carving that gets mixed into clay and glazes. Grit is the silica found in the breakaway glass from a broken Ikea table. 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? Alchemy, with its ancient roots in many cultures, was not just about transmuting material into gold but exploring elemental entanglement. My work explores potentialities and expresses an affinity between art and alchemy, grit in an embodied form. 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 labour and care, the work created weaves a dialogue between material, place and time.

April 17th-22nd, 2023
The Fireside Lounge, York University

Graduate Program in Visual Arts, York University
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