AMY ASH

Perennial Bodies

Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, March-June, 2023

What can we learn from the kinship of tangled roots and whispering rhizomes, the sharing of resources for mutual flourishing, and the vibrant reemergence after a long winter of rest?

Exhibition text:

a body with no end; Amy Ash’s Perennial Bodies

by Maeve Hanna           

Queer New Brunswick artist Amy Ash’s (she/they) exhibition Perennial Bodies presents work from across their practice which explores the many manifestations of the body. Through cyanotypes, plaster sculptures, blown glass and a living installation the exhibition offers a forum for examining possibilities of hybridity, fluidity and temporality of bodies, both human and more-than.

Ash continuously returns to a familiar vernacular of forms, colours and materials: hands, feet and organic shapes; muted tones of burgundy, purple, blues and greens; cyanotypes, pressed and living flora and collected natural ephemera. Every detail present is deliberate, carrying deep personal meaning for the artist. Through their artwork and community action Ash extends the ethos of social engagement and care into the gallery by incorporating aspects of workshops she has led with seniors, youth and 2SLGBTQIA+ folx. The workshops they lead foster an inclusive atmosphere for creativity, play and thepotential for making meaningful connections.

In two large cyanotypes titled Nourishing the Feeling and Cycles of Sustenance hands reach out, caressing and holding space around the shadows of dried leaves and flowers that seem to bloom through waves of blue that roll across the substrate. The hands may be those of a stranger or the artist’s but the gestures are the same; ones of care and tenderness that bring the viewer back to the overall tenor of the exhibition, that of engaging with the potential of touch and connection when feelings of isolation and loneliness abound. Hands and feet in sculptural form appear in other works: the hands of many tending, holding and caring in unison. In Vessel 1: Nesting, Shelter - Release and Dare to Imagine a Fecund Coevolution plaster casts of hands hold floral specimens and glass vessels containing salvaged precious metals and alloys. In Circadian Body, cast feet appear from under a long gossamer cyanotype, a floral gateway or portal between worlds, between a world drowning in climate and capitalist angst and one of mutual care and aid.

The construct of time is a significant concept for Ash. She incorporates slowness, walking, listening, observing and collecting as practices in her everyday life and art. As a central praxis to the exhibition these exercises contradict the pillars of contemporary success upheld by late-stage capitalism. The artist instead focuses on recalling the potential for symbiotic relationships between humans and nature. Through these habits the artist creates their own memoryscape from the immediacy of interaction within her everyday environments, encouraging others to do the same.

In an act of collection and meaning-making, Ash has assembled a selection of salvaged glass containers, the receptacles of food or skin products leftover from personal consumption. The artist spent the winter in mentorship, learning from a master glass-artist to manipulate, reform and reimagine the empty bottles into something new. In the gallery, the hand-blown glass vessels are placed under a grow light mimicking the sun. When the exhibition was first installed, each vessel was holding a branch devoid of life. As the days passed each twig began to bud with leaves of fresh green, bringing the promise of spring and rebirth to mind.

Perennial Bodies is itself a body collected from many disparate parts and places. Across their art practice Ash interrupts socially established binaries by integrating practices that contradict and counteract contemporary ways of living and being in the world. The artist uses her research and time-based practices as her point of departure to translate her vision. At the root of the exhibition is the act of touching, physical connection, bearing witness to the impact and need for community and care for humans and all beings.

THANK YOU: Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Maeve Hanna, Curtis Dionne, Sara Griffin, Alex Ash.

With gratitude, I would like to acknowledge the support of the New Brunswick Arts Board and the City of Saint John.

2016

Without Words, What are Facts?

This exhibition combines pieces from several recent bodies of work, including the title series.  Each project uses found imagery and histories from multiple sources, connecting the fragments to string together new associations.

My practice pays close attention to the way layers of memory settle to form new narratives, impacting our perceptions of reality. I aim to disrupt existing structures and hierarchies, tracing their relation to the construction and perpetuation of personal and cultural narratives and lore. Stripped mostly of their context, these fragments of history and technology continue to echo their stories alongside those we assign to them to affect our own sense of truth. Tapping into (and confusing) the collective memory, I alter my findings through careful actions of material intervention, gently persuading connections to be made.

The exhibition’s title, Without words, what are facts? makes reference to Susan Howe’s poetic docu-essay Sorting Facts, or Nineteen Ways of Looking at Marker.

In an age of digital saturation, I choose to work primarily with found images and analogue photography materials.  The works included in this exhibition (with the exception of With Every Remembering) are all unique images made without digital intervention. A combination of silver gelatin enlargements and cyanotypes, each photographic image was produced in the darkroom, from found negatives, and materially altered by hand. Much of this work was created on residency at The Banff Centre for the Arts, with the support of The Peter MacKendrick Endowment Fund for Visual Artists.

The Engram (Pot Of Gold) was curated by William Forrestall for University of St. Thomas & The Beaverbrook Art Gallery. It was exhibited at The Yellow Box Gallery, on the St. Thomas University campus, Fredericton, Canada.

2016

Engram (noun)

a physical alteration thought to occur in living neural tissue in response to stimuli, posited as an explanation for memory. Providing a physical basis for the persistence of memory; it is also referred to as a memory trace.

Pot of Gold (noun)

folklore: a mythological reward for finding the end of a rainbow.

branding: a Moirs Chocolate Company variety pack, which sat under most Christmas trees in Atlantic Canada while the chocolatier thrived in Halifax.

A rainbow relies on specific weather conditions, the right moment, a trick of the light and the perspective of the viewer. It is caused by reflection, refraction and dispersion of light in water droplets resulting in a spectrum of light appearing in the sky. These conditions result in the form of a multicoloured arc. The rainbow is an optical effect which depends on the location of the viewer; it moves with the viewer's sightline. When walking toward the end of a rainbow, it will appear to "move" further away. 

Despite our best efforts to pin them down, memories are shape-shifters and work themselves into similar fictions. Making something new with each remembering, the verity of the original event is the ‘pot of gold’ which can never be reached due to a shift in perspective.

THANK YOU: William Forrestall, Nadia Khoury and St. Thomas University.

PHOTOS: Heather Tufts Photography. 

2015

I am regularly presented with offerings of abandoned mementos. On a recent trip home, I was gifted a vintage Moirs (a now defunct Halifax based chocolatier) box, full of mid-twentieth century negatives and news clippings, by a local second hand shop.  The shopkeeper explained that the box was worthless and would otherwise be thrown away.

Not so. I challenge that the Moirs box and its contents, cradle the very marrow of the place. Images are reappearing, challenging the narratives we expect and the value that has been denied.

This body of work includes silver gelatin prints found negatives, cyanotypes, drawing, handmade paper, collage, installation and text. It was produced during the Truth Lies and Lore residency at the Banff Centre for the Arts.

Thank you to the Banff Centre and the Peter MacKendrick Endowment Fund for Visual Artists. Thank you also to Loyalist City Coin and Books in Saint John, New Brunswick for always saving unwanted relics for me.

Images from the Banff Centre for the Arts Open StudioDecemeber, 2015.