Circular Dimensions with Maya Foltyn @ Carnegie Gallery

It was an honour and a pleasure working with Maya Foltyn and her family on this dialogue between her paintings and drawings and my sculptural work - inspired from my time in Australia, in 2017, including works made at Medalta 2019 and newer works from my Parkdale kiln. Check out the complete series Spaces Within

We had an amazing crowd of over 60 people who came out and stayed and spent quality time talking to us and asking lots of questions - on the opening, Friday February 7th

“In 2017 I embarked on my “Spaces Within” series. This work reinvigorates modernism in our times, and engages issues of race and identity, seeking to transcend Eurocentricism. The hollow negative spaces represent a simultaneous sense of loss, renewal, and overall belonging.
— Heidi McKenzie”

About 30 souls came out for our Artist Walk-Through and Q & A at the Carnegie on February 23rd, 2020

Maya describing the use of bitchumen in her drawings during the Q&A

Heidi describing her experience of James Cook’s observation of “terra nullius” when he discovered Australia - negating the existence of Indigenous People’s - in the face of the evidence of abalone fish hooks found on the site.

A look into, around, and within Circular Dimensions

This monograph was written by Agnieszka Foltyn based on interviews she had with each of the artists, myself and Maya Foltyn. Circular Dimensions opens Friday, Feb.7th, 7-9pm. Artists’ Walk-through Sunday Feburary 23, 2pm.

"...The practices of Heidi McKenzie and Maya Foltyn touch and separate, intersect and cross over, flow in parallel and divide in separate directions. These are not linear trajectories but rather circular or cyclical meanderings, stimulated and affected by the machinations of society throughout time. They are dreams, thoughts, extensions of a willingness to understand or to come into contact with the unknown...."

Body Within @ CUTMR2020, Gladstone

“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.

Award at CRAFT FORMS 2019 Philadelphia

Jane Milosch presenting the Award of Merit in Ceramics at Craft Forms, Wayne Art Centre, Dec. 6, 2019

I recently returned from Philadelphia where my ‘House of Cards’ was exhibited alongside eighty other fine craft artists’ work at CRAFT FORMS 25th International Juried Exhibition of Contemporary Fine Craft at the Wayne Art Centre. The show was juried by Jane Milosch, Founder and Director of the Smithsonian Provenance Research Initiative. I captured The Award of Merit for ceramics.

Exhibition runs from December 7 to February 1, 2020.

Twenty artists were present to deliver brief remarks at the public opening on December 7th.

I had a chance to speak about my work, ‘House of Cards’ as a tribute to my father’s life as an early immigrant to Canada,

and some of the racialized experiences he endured, to build his home in a new country - the fragility and the strength.

Heidi Artist Talk Craft Forms 2019 from Heidi McKenzie on Vimeo.

‘House of Cards’ Award-winning installation representing my father’s journey and life as a new Canadian from Trinidad in 1953 to his passing, 2016.

Water selected as "Best Of" Cluj International Ceramics Biennale

My work, Water, my largest work to date, weighed in crated at 100lbs was created at Medalta in Medicine Hat, Alberta, winter 2019. Water was selected to part of an ongoing touring exhibition of “best of” the Cluj-Napoca International Ceramics Biennale. More details to follow…

Special Thanks to the Ontario Arts Council through Harbourfront Centre Crafts and SAVAC for Exhibition Assistance in making this possible.

The Australian Ceramics Triennale Tasmania

I was invited to present, exhibit and curate around the theme of “Decolonizing Clay” at The Australian Ceramics Triennale Tasmania from May 1-4, 2019. I stayed on for another week, then a couple more in Australia and hopped home via Beijing and Vancouver. This is my missive out to my email subscribers peppered with photos.

Hobart feels like Halifax.

I am sitting on a plane, the last leg of my seven-flight, five-week journey that took me to Tasmania, through Melbourne and Sydney, via Beijing, Vancouver and now heading home to Toronto. I was invited to present, moderate and curate around the theme of ceramic artists of colour making place and holding space to tell their own stories at the Australian Ceramics Triennale in Hobart, Tasmania. I was fortunate to receive Canada Council funding to bring this vision to reality, and was thrilled to work with my fellow panelists, Arun Sharma (a Sydney-based American sculptor I had met on my last trip to Australia in 2017), and Neville Assad-Salha, a veteran maker and Lebanese-Australian currently relocating to Adelaide. Our panel drew an impressive audience of over half the delegates, estimated at 350 – and what stayed with me, were the half a dozen or so young Australian artists of colour who came to me over the next few days to tell me that they had been moved to tears – tears of relief and of joy – to hear other racialized artists, similar to themselves, speak our truths, honestly, without confrontation, blame or shame, but with steadfast pride.

Neville Assad-Salha, Heidi McKenzie, Arun Sharma - the participants/exhibitors in Decolonizing Clay

I had a great time hanging with the gaggle of Canadians who made to the Triennale at MONA. Grace Nickel and I spent the day soaking up the experience of the Museum of Old and New Art, which more than lives up to its reputation. I found myself drawn to write about the largest glockenspiel in the world.

Possibly the most compelling work of art at MONA, The Museum of Old and New Art in Hobart - as the water falls, it spells random words - it’s beautiful and genius.

Hobart feels a lot like Halifax and a little like St. John’s. I signed up for a five-day whirlwind tour of Tasmania post-conference – three weeks later I found myself on Vancouver Island touring its south shore – and I realized why the cool temperate rainforests of Tasmania were so familiar – they are astoundingly similar to the wilderness of the west coast of BC! – which in no way diminished the awe-inspiring beauty of either natural wonder. Ceramics is truly an international community – a friend from Jingdezhen, Diana Williams hosted me in Melbourne and then I was onto Sydney – to be feted with Mitsuo and Chris Shoji in grand style, a dinner with Trudy Golley and Paul Leathers and plenty of time with my former studio mate, Szilvia Gyorgy, and squeezed in the symphoney at the Opera House with Giti Dutt. I had a brief 52-hour layover in Beijing, and was blessed with warm sun, yet high winds which whisked away any threat of harmful pollution. I took a day-tour of the least touristy part of The Great Wall, checked that off the bucket list, and spent the rest of my time wandering the Forbidden City and ducking in and out of contemporary art galleries in the798 Art District.

The venue was at Princess Wharf No. 1 - over 1000 pieces of ceramic art under one roof!

I arrived in Vancouver two days before my husband was to receive his honourary doctorate for outstanding contribution to community from UBC. It was a full week of festivities which brought me to tears of pride and joy. We were blessed to have his mother and his brother with us. We managed to pack in quite the social calender, check out most of the major ceramics scene in town (thank you Debra Sloan, my Vancouver ceramic guide) and visit with my mentor, Ying-Yueh Chuang.

Home is a mere few hours away – and I feel as if I haven’t really been there since the New Year. I have some work to get to this month with a solo show opening in the Gardiner Shop in early July, and I’m really looking forward to getting my hands back into the mud. Already planning a return trip to the Northern Territories for the next Australian Triennale in 2022.

Missive #3 Home from Medalta in the Historic Pottery District

My solo exhibition on Feb 25th in the beehive kiln, “it will be what it will be” -

I started the last missive just past the three-quarter mark. I was busy making lemonade from lemons and had lifted myself out of the inevitable funk of disappointment that tends to transpire when you work with new clay, new kilns, and new creative endeavours. Cracks were mended, alternative techniques tested and I was buoyed by the credo that my wise friend, Harlan House sent round at the time: “You can always do it better. And until you’ve done it a thousand times you haven’t done it.  Until you can fix it you haven’t done it at all.” (Claudia Fleming, baker). The glass half-full, turned out to be a glass overflowing with learning and somewhat to my astonishment, achievement. I managed to create my “new-modernist” forms at large scales without kiln explosions, and put on a solo exhibition in a beehive kiln. I have left the work to be professionally crated by a past resident and now am actively shopping it around as, alas, David Kaye Gallery was forced to close its doors in the New Year.

Many of the highlights of Medalta for me were the people that I connected with over my time. I already mentioned Jim Marshall, the brick muralist who lives across from the artist lodge. I had the opportunity to more time with him, and I am looking forward to writing a profile about his life and work for an upcoming issue of Ceramics Monthly. I am writing this a a week after I left Medicine Hat – and I’m already nostalgic for the dry cold, the charming repertory cinema, the surreal small-town kareoke and the comraderie of new friends who are “in the know” when it comes to transforming mud. It was an honour to work alongside veteran scuptor, Grace Nickel, and watch the year-round residents as well as Heather Lepp, who arrived with me on New Year’s, flourish over such a relatively brief time. We weathered some rocky times and we all braved the -30C+ windchills, all of us except many of the vehicles who refused to perform in the permafrost. I believe I became somewhat cavalier about the deer waltzing by my window.

Jim Marshall with “the gang” in his studio with his latest mural in progress.

Noriko Masuda our fearless studio leader - crutches and all.

I left Medalta knowing that I will return. I am full of ideas that need to come to fruition in the particular alchemy of the place. I am on a train returning from Montreal, having taught half a dozen potters some of the tricks of the trade with coloured clay, and done a whirlwind tour of the contemporary art scene. I look forward to getting grounded, reconnecting with friends and hunkering down for the upcoming season of grant deadlines, planning and scheming – and getting my hands dirty back in the studio.

Until next time, Medalta - I loved your frozen warmth!

Clay in Motion Extended until December 13th

Clay in Motion, Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery, Waterloo

November 8 until Sunday December 13th

China Unbound @ David Kaye Gallery

David Kaye presented my first solo exhibition in Toronto fromApril 2-26, 2015. The works came from and out of my experience of working in Jingdezhen, China the Pottery Workshop in the spring of 2013.

I work in two different palettes or “ideascapes”: tonal and primal. The tonal draws on the variegated hues of raw clay bodies, while the primal is based on the colour-wheel’s saturated pigments. My shapes also draw on two opposing ideas: linear curves and basic solid three-dimensional forms; bands of thrown and altered clay, coaxed into kinetic rhythm versus foundational geometry.

China Bound is a series of work that reflects the duality of China that I experienced during my artist residency in Jingdezhen, 2013. Much of the country seems intent on aspiring to hyper-capitalism, while at the same time the soul of the country - its tradition - refuses to be quashed. In this series I try to capture what I believe to be at the core of this duality. Placing the forms in asymmetry at the centre of the altered vessels speaks to the caveats placed on freedom and innovation, where tradition is encircled and bursting with new energy.

Mimesis While in Denmark at Guldagergaard Centre for Ceramic Research in the fall of 2014, I started to make my first complex moulds. My objective was to reframe both the individual and society through abstract portraiture, using the vocabulary I developed in China. I aim to challenge us to examine the varied facets of our lives within the context of social responsibility.

Reaching is a technical and intentional extension of a “mistake” that occurred in Denmark. The series of work, though playful, comments on western society’s craving for constant momentum - always striving for something more.

Chi is a series of work that has its genesis in my own 18-year transformative journey through the practice of tai chi chuan and chi qong. I designed the original forms upon which the moulds of the yin yang and bagua base were made and worked with the craftsmen in Jingdezhen China who fashioned the pieces. Chi is the energy, the life force in each of us.

Essence is the beginning of new work where I move from the macro to the micro, focusing on “soul sketches” of an individual, finding the movement and spectrum of their inner voice.

SOLO SHOW TORONTO CHINA UNBOUND

Opening Saturday April 11th, 2-4pm at David Kaye Gallery, North/West corner Queen St. W. and Dovercourt (entrance ON Dovercourt – next to Starbucks).

April 2-26th, 2015

I continue to work through the profound insights I had in China 2013 regarding the abstraction of identity, culture and aspects of society. Work shown will be recent bodies of work, work from my residency in Denmark (November 2014) and work from China. I am asking the public to consider different facets of their lives through the work, considering how each and every one of us can contribute to society in meaningful ways.

Life in Balance at Gallery 1313

I am thrilled to have been selected to participate in Gallery 1313 Emerging Artist Summer Exhibition -(July 10-20) Rwa Bineda Artist Statement (created in Bali August 2013)

Each instant carries with it a multitude of possibilities. We are bombarded by choice at every turn, and yet we tend to ignore the natural undercurrent of the rhythm of life. In Balinese culture I observed a pervasive sense of respect for the importance of the constant dialogue between good and evil. Balinese philosophy describes this ongoing play between opposing forces as “Rwa Bineda.” Many of the core themes in my work reflect back similar notions of duality: fragility and strength; static motion; yearning, submission and ultimately transcendence. Traditionally the Balinese depict Rwa Bineda in black/white and/or red checked patterned cloth. I chose to use the static motion of closed wheel-thrown loops. Life itself is an experiment – its twists and turns – and am coming to understand that balance is not an unattainable ideal, but an imperfect state of being that just happens one moment at a time.

Churning: Transcending Material at NCECA 2014

Hi all – thanks to everyone who came out to NCECA in Milwaukee and checked out the Potter’s Council Juried Members’ show in the exhibition hall. I had some great feedback, really appreciate the support. It was a wild time! And thanks also to the Ontario Arts Council for supporting the transport of the work and for allowing me the opportunity to promote the work onsite.

Balancing Act…

Here’s the artist statement for my solo show that ends my residency at Gaya – it’s been great, when I start to think about all the creative leaps and bounds, discoveries, learnings – I can’t wait to get back into the studio and start working again…

Each instant carries with it a multitude of possibilities. We are bombarded by choice at every turn, and yet we tend to ignore the natural undercurrent of the rhythm of life. In Balinese culture I have observed a pervasive sense of respect for the importance of the constant dialogue between good and evil. Balinese philosophy describes this ongoing play between opposing forces as “Rwa Bineda.” Many of the core themes in my work reflect similar notions of duality: fragility and strength; static motion; yearning, submission and ultimately transcendence. The varied work in this exhibition is inspired by my recent sojourn in Jingdezhen, China’s porcelain capital, my time at Gaya in Bali, and my own life’s twists and turns. I am just beginning to grasp the notion of “Rwa Bineda,” as I come to understand that balance is not an unattainable ideal, but an imperfect state of being that just happens one moment at a time.

In the Loop Install

I’m thrilled to be showing with this stellar group of artists at the Living Arts Centre – I felt elated to be able to realize the hanging piece I had started at Sheridan – and add to it conceptually, where the pieces hanging are the distillation of my self as a “white” person having grown up in brown skin. Stay tuned for the psa re reception to see the work.