GROUP EXHIBITION, West Vancouver

Ferry Building Gallery

1414 Argyle Ave.
Open Wed-Sun, 11-5pm

*gallery photos by Shirley Wiebe

The Quiet Between explores the contemplative spaces where emotion, nature, and material meet — whether through still life, raw clay vessels, or graphite landscapes.

Opening Reception: Thursday, April 2, 6–8 p.m.

Meet the Artists: Saturday, April 11, 2–3 p.m.

Tour for Farsi Speakers: Saturday, April 18, 3 p.m.

This work is from my artist residency at Tidal Art Centre in Lund in 2024. One of my focuses was to work with local Sunshine Coast clay that my friend Brent VandenBroek gifted me. Working with wild clay transformed how I approach my practice. It shifted not only what I make, but how I listen to and engage with the material.

Working with something so raw and unrefined invited me to slow down, to be curious, and to notice the clay’s own sense of agency — its way of participating in the creative process.

I began by following my instinct to repeatedly make spheres with clay and over time the hollow forms began to open. After each one was made, I lived with it for a time, letting the form speak, learning what it might want to become next. Usually, the next step in clay work would be to fire the pieces in a kiln — to fix them into ceramic form. But instead, I paused. I waited for the right direction to reveal itself, to understand the way and method of transformation the clay itself seemed to suggest. I was surprised to feel tension in this pause, an uncomfortableness sitting with not knowing and not doing what I normally would do. 

In our current times, this feels especially important — to reflect on how we transform the matter of our planet, and to take responsibility for the choices we make in that process. At that point I realized that firing remains an option, but not the only one.

Many of the commercial materials used in ceramics carry hidden environmental, social and cultural costs. So, I made a deliberate choice to limit my palette to three materials: borax, copper carbonate, and liquid graphite. I also used a small amount of commercial clay, but always alongside my wild clay, in dialogue with it. 

What you see here are:

• Raw, unfired, clay sculptures 

• Low fired sculptures left unglazed / painted with liquid graphite / and dynamic surfaces created from a limited palette.

Through this process, I’ve come to understand my practice as embodied, relational and cyclical— a conversation between myself, the materials, and the place they come from.