Gallery / Exhibit Wheelchair Accessible
admin@arcac.ca
902.532.7069
Doors open at 11am
Event in Room: Main Gallery
Organically shaped, anthropomorphized objects constructed from salvaged rope, and video.
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Wrought / Sandra Smirle
February 3 - March 30, ARTSPLACE Main Gallery
Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri 10am-4pm & Sat 11am-2pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 12-2pm
Instagram: @sandrasmirle
Website: sandrasmirle.com
In 2022, Smirle started to explore the craft of ropemaking, to understand its practices, processes, and materials. She constructed a rope-twisting machine and set about reworking the salvaged rope and other materials, such as used bicycle innertubes and garden waste into new rope. Just as the concept of ‘rope’ is rich in allegory, the idea of making new rope of intertwined materials, feels naturally symbolic.
To weave together opposing forces - one thread twists outward while the other twists inward - creates strength and is a clarion call for these times.
Last spring, Smirle connected with Ghost Gear Fund, a program led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, intended to support Canada’s broader commitment to reducing plastics in our oceans, particularly as it applies to abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear.
Drawing on tensions between the boundlessness we feel on a planet beset by entropy, and the tethered nature of our digital and material presence, Sandra Smirle uses conservation as a lens through which to survey the landscape. Re-using rope or ‘ghost rope’ that has been retrieved after being discarded at sea, and transforming it into organically shaped, anthropomorphized objects, this body of work addresses consumerism and its consequences on our ocean’s health — and thereby, our own — perhaps opening a dialogue about humans’ impact on the Earth’s climate and natural ecosystems.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sandra Smirle is a multidisciplinary project-based Canadian artist living in Montreal, whose practice focuses on our fraying relationship with nature. Using conservation as a lens through which to survey the landscape, she strives to create works that reflect and advance ideas of stewardship and balance.
Smirle holds an MFA (2015, Fibres and Material Practice) and BFA (1990) from Concordia University, Montreal, as well as a diploma in Graphic Design from Humber College, Toronto. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is held in private and corporate collections in Canada, Australia, and Europe. Smirle has been featured in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press, in addition to The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. Her work was included in “Deviant Devices,” a series by The Site Magazine, 2020, and most recently in the documentary The City Island by filmmaker Elizabeth Littlejohn, 2022.
admin@arcac.ca
902.532.7069
Doors open at 11am
Event in Room: Main Gallery
Organically shaped, anthropomorphized objects constructed from salvaged rope, and video.
---
Wrought / Sandra Smirle
February 3 - March 30, ARTSPLACE Main Gallery
Gallery Hours: Tue-Fri 10am-4pm & Sat 11am-2pm
Opening Reception: Saturday, February 3, 12-2pm
Instagram: @sandrasmirle
Website: sandrasmirle.com
In 2022, Smirle started to explore the craft of ropemaking, to understand its practices, processes, and materials. She constructed a rope-twisting machine and set about reworking the salvaged rope and other materials, such as used bicycle innertubes and garden waste into new rope. Just as the concept of ‘rope’ is rich in allegory, the idea of making new rope of intertwined materials, feels naturally symbolic.
To weave together opposing forces - one thread twists outward while the other twists inward - creates strength and is a clarion call for these times.
Last spring, Smirle connected with Ghost Gear Fund, a program led by Fisheries and Oceans Canada, intended to support Canada’s broader commitment to reducing plastics in our oceans, particularly as it applies to abandoned, lost or discarded fishing gear.
Drawing on tensions between the boundlessness we feel on a planet beset by entropy, and the tethered nature of our digital and material presence, Sandra Smirle uses conservation as a lens through which to survey the landscape. Re-using rope or ‘ghost rope’ that has been retrieved after being discarded at sea, and transforming it into organically shaped, anthropomorphized objects, this body of work addresses consumerism and its consequences on our ocean’s health — and thereby, our own — perhaps opening a dialogue about humans’ impact on the Earth’s climate and natural ecosystems.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Sandra Smirle is a multidisciplinary project-based Canadian artist living in Montreal, whose practice focuses on our fraying relationship with nature. Using conservation as a lens through which to survey the landscape, she strives to create works that reflect and advance ideas of stewardship and balance.
Smirle holds an MFA (2015, Fibres and Material Practice) and BFA (1990) from Concordia University, Montreal, as well as a diploma in Graphic Design from Humber College, Toronto. Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally and is held in private and corporate collections in Canada, Australia, and Europe. Smirle has been featured in The Map as Art: Contemporary Artists Explore Cartography, published by Princeton Architectural Press, in addition to The Globe and Mail and The Toronto Star. Her work was included in “Deviant Devices,” a series by The Site Magazine, 2020, and most recently in the documentary The City Island by filmmaker Elizabeth Littlejohn, 2022.
Pricing & Tickets
Pricing: Free
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
arcacartsplace@gmail.com
902-532-7069
View Full Venue Info
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