Welcome to Our Home - Installation for Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival (2021) Duration: 3 hrs
Observing the liminal state of public/ private that is brought about by light
Considering the in-betweens of public and private space – a window at night balances this apparent duality.
While the happenings within a home are hidden during the day, a window at night might share the personal
setting of a home to those passing by. This installation presents a scene in the private sphere and invites
the viewer to gaze and experience the intimacy of another’s dwelling. While looking, one might notice rituals,
belongings, personal exchanges, and feel the presence of others in a distanced space. In these observational
moments spaces are shared and boundaries blurred by means of ‘light’.
- Plywood, glass, textile, film
AIRS - Artist in Residence Studio with the Vancouver School Board (2021)
Kindergarteners and grades ones, twos, and threes at Trudeau Elementary worked outdoors on a place
based art project at George Park, located two blocks from the school. The students explored
the park with their senses and experienced the many sounds, smells, feelings, and sights
within that space. The students noted the sounds of puddles, the placement of rocks, the
smell of trees, and the sounds of birds and shared those experiences through storytelling,
drawing, and making. Choosing one experience to work with for our final installation, the
students made paper-mache art that tells a story of each of their experiences. Throughout
their time making, some projects merged together and a few students ended up collaborating
on shared experiences. As part of the final class, they brought their objects of place back
to George Park, and we held a temporary outdoor installation. The students placed their art
contextually in the park and visited each of their classmate’s works, reflecting on their
unique experiences and collective experiences within that space. Spending time in George Park
and deeply sensing the environment brought to light an intrinsic interconnectedness in shared
space.
Mishap Journal (2021)
Mishap is a themed journal that aims to celebrate both
individual and collective practice. The journal highlights
creative works by artists and designers, and prompts
collective thought and dialogue surrounding a monthly
theme. We want to re-semanticize mishap – a word
typically associated with failure, mistake, and unfortunate
outcome - as a word that reflects the happenings of a nonlinear process
that we value in a creative practice. With that
mindset, we hope Mishap can be a space for people to
inquire, learn, converse, move, and further create.
In collaboration with Manon Day Fraser.
https://www.are.na/mishap-journal/mishap-vkmdfu_svsw
Neighbourhood Stroll (2020)
Daily observations and experiences from my neighbourhood walk
For ten days I walked the same route in my neighbourhood, noting my experiences along the way.
By walking the same path every day, I came to know the spaces that I moved through;
they were familiar and sometimes predictable. I came to know the areas that were high
in traffic where people might gather, I also came to know the areas that were quiet and
perhaps off people’s radar. The walk presented the rhythms and schedules of my neighbours -
I would often have experiences at the same time and place throughout the week. People in
my neighbourhood had their own paths and spaces that they would consistently situate
themselves in. Over the ten days I watched how people related to space based on their activities,
routines, location, and needs.
A Place For Presence - Graduate Project (2020)
For this project, ‘place’ describes a personally relatable space. This project began by exploring the creation of
place through citizen-driven interventions in public space. In my research, place is a reaction of a moving context;
it is constantly evolving within shared space. Despite this, places are often designed as permanent physical infrastructures
and are not responsive to evolving spatial conditions. I realized that there is an inherent separation between
citizens and public space as they tend to passively rather than actively engage with shared environments.
For this reason, the aim of my project was to explore methods of active participation that would foster a sense of place
that is responsive, ephemeral, and personally relatable. My research process involved interventions, workshops, and the design of tools to
create a temporary experience of place. The final 'tool set' draws from my research; synthesizing the spatial
explorations I did throughout this project and expressing the temporalities of place through personal spatial relations.
Prompt 1:The picnic blanket
- Woven and felted wool
- Steel and carved hard elm
- Slip-cast porcelain
- Slip-cast porcelain
- Steel
Spatial Prompts - Activity Booklet (2020)
Material Research (2020)
Explorations on a 'Felt Loom'
Mending Public Space - Grant Project (2019)
In this project, both physical and social aspects of ‘mending’ were considered within public space through a series
of community workshops and public interventions. These included hanging laundry in the park, mending fences by
weaving in broken sections, 'Messages for Our Neighbours' a sign making workshop, and mowing pedestrian pathways along
side bike routes. These workshops and interventions considered the unique
social and physical needs in a public sphere addressing how public space might be mended to better suit a
communities’ needs. I was curious to explore how people take stewardship of space, and how
local needs and desires shape a collective sense of place.
Unworthy Objects - Ecological Design Award (2018)
"What makes an object valuable? What makes one thing worthy of repair while others are discarded?
Can a disposable object evolve into something more worthy? "These are questions that student
Augusta Lutynski explores in her project Unworthy Objects. Augusta conducted research that
evolved into a series of projects focusing on engaging and educating people in the practice
of mending objects deemed “unworthy”. Unworthy Objects is comprised of object-mending tutorials
in the form of videos, step-by-step "Instructables" and kits, with the goal of challenging the
unworthiness of disposable objects.
https://www.instructables.com/How-to-Mend-a-Pencil/
https://www.ecuad.ca/news/2018/unworthy-objects