“The room was so beautifully
set up with the different media balancing themselves out and inter-connecting. I think what distinguishes you as an artist is the solid conceptual-emotional base from which your work emerges. I watched people come into the room and immediately recognize the prescient humanity emanating from your art. They were drawn to look and contemplate and feel. That comes from a lot of feeling and cogitating before and during the time when you put your hands in the clay.”
— Rosalind Gill, Author
A driving force in my sculpture practice is my lived experience of chronic pain and chronic illness coupled with the triumph of healing and living one day at a time. For over 20 years I suffered severe fibromyalgia and I have been living the fall-out of my congenital kidney disease for over thirty years. In 2015/2016 I had unexplained lower abdominal pain, which left me bedridden for weeks. I underwent countless tests to eventually discover a partially blocked femoral artery after eighteen months of investigation. I am living pain-free today, my incurable kidney disease in remission.
Surprise! Sunday at 5:30pm I was awarded a Designlines “Love Tag” for one of the “coolest exhibitions in Design TO” from an editor at Azure Magazine.
From January 16 - 19 over 2000 people “came up to my room” to experience my solo exhibition, Body Within at the Gladstone Hotel’s Design TO event. I put together a flyer of information mapping out the room - and am including this information in bits and pieces along with photography by Gabby Franks - candids and video documentation my own.
the architectural blueprint of the room that I curated/exhibited within with a guide to the works displayed - NOTE: 2 was in the diagonally opposite corner - planning on paper isn’t always what happens during installation.
I began my sculpture practice at Sheridan College, weaving self-portraits of the paradox of the way one looks versus the way one feels with twisted bands of clay. In the spring of 2018, I was invited to Kecskemet, Hungary to participate in a one-month symposium alongside six Canadian ceramic artists and seven Hungarians on the theme of “Muscle Memory.” Many of the exhibited works are born of this experience. (*) The new works in this exhibition are the result of my gathering of images from six hospitals over the last ten years.
Disembodied
1. Disembodied* 2018, stoneware, wood fired,70cm x 40cm x 5cm. This piece emerged from the ashes of the wood firing at Kecskemet in Hungary. It integrates my healing crisis in graphic abstract representation through process: the wood-fired iron-oxide rich stains allude to the scars and muscle memory of my ongoing struggles with the corporeal. $3,750 CDN + HST
3. Life Force* 2018, Ceramics, various, gas, wood, raku, electric fired; wall-mounted, each pair of kidneys approximately 25cm x30cm x 3cm; with audio soundscape of breathing, new composition for Body Within, “I AM HERE” by The Ambient Orchestra. Each pair represents a seven-year cycle where the body fully renews itself.
$3,750 CDN + HST
4. Lurking* 2018, 60cm x 80cm x 5cm, stoneware, porcelain slip, wall-mounted, archival home movies of the artist circa 1968-1972. This multi-media work embodies my organs in relief on a “blank slate” of porcelain-washed multipart “screen”, overlaid with video imagery of myself as an innocent newborn and toddler. $4,500 + HST.
Body Imaged
7. Body Imaged 2020, 42 porcelain substrate, 4.5” x 6.5” each, inkjet decals. This new work, inspired by Come Up to My Room is a testament to the extensive testing I have undergone over the last decade, from CAT scans, MRIs, X-rays, ultrasounds, ECGs and brain scans. $4,750 + HST.
Betrayed
2. Betrayed* 2018, stoneware, glaze, wood-fired. 37cm x 21cm x 10cm. This work is part of my formal modernist sculpture series “Spaces Within.” The hollow negative space depicts the human bladder – its rawness and aggravated state are reflected in its colour and the inflamed process of firing the work itself. $1,200 + HST
Life Force (wall); Anima Worn (plinth)
5. Anima Worn 2012, 50cm x 50cm x 50cm (variable), stoneware, gas fired. While at Sheridan College (2010-2012) I developed a technique of twisting bands of thrown clay. Until then, I had suffered silently with the invisible chronic pain of fibromyalgia for decades. This work represents my cathartic process in healing both the pain and its associative shame. $4,500 + HST
Body Interrupted
6. Body Interrupted 2016/2020, 15 “cubes” 11cm x 11cm x 11cm, installation variable, slip cast porcelain and ceramic decal. I began this work after my healing crisis, 2014-2016. When I was unable to work on the wheel, I turned to slip casting to express the physical constraints of my body. Literally “boxed-in.” I have doubled the components of this piece for this exhibition. $3,750 CDN + HST.
The Wall of Inquiry (right); Betrayed (left)
8. Wall of Inquiry 2020, 70 letter size sheets, laser printed. This work was inspired by this room at the Gladstone Hotel, and the intent of Body Within, which is to give the viewer a sense of the overwhelm associated with my quest for healing. These are snapshots of a subsection of the tests that I underwent from 2009 to 2019. It also tracks the results of Ayurvedic treatment: I am living free of my “incurable” kidney disease.
“Body Within Artist Statement:
Using the media of clay, film and sound, this multi-part installation asks the question – what is it like to embody a human vessel that is invisibly fractured? Through abstraction, I share my experience and catharsis of chronic fibromyalgia, spontaneous collapsed lung, partially blocked femoral artery, congenital kidney disease and living with a compromised immune system. Some days feel full of struggle and defeat; other times I am filled with gratitude, serenity and optimism. I have created these works: their very existence affirms that “I am here.””
I would like to thank my husband, Ali Kazimi, for his unwavering support love and nourishment over the last twenty-five years. Thanks also to Emmanuel Albano for his hand in finalizing the video, Rosalind Gill and Arlene Moscovitch for their keen editorial input. Special thanks to Anil Hardit-Singh for his vision in composing the soundscape, I AM HERE. Thanks also to Toni Olshen, Jennifer Moore and Maya Foltyn for their selfless efforts on my behalf. Thanks also to the amazing team at the Gladstone: Nicki, Jacob, Alex, and the ever-able superwoman, Lee Petrie. Thanks also to Megan Feheley for her wisdom and guidance.
Soundscape by Ambient Orchestra www.TheAmbientOrchestra.com
Twitter @AmbientOrch. Soundcloud @AmbientOrch
This project is supported by the Ontario Arts Council’s Exhibition Assistance Program.
