Billows and boughs
Billows and boughs
2019
3 photo-based sculptures
Archival pigment prints on 12.5mm silk charmeuse draped over hand shaped maple, turned aluminum, maple, light, air. 24" x 34" x 60", 24" x 34" x 60", 24" x 34" x 72" approximately. Installation dimensions variable. studio view.
The photographs, sculptures, and installations in Billows and boughs re-envision the intimate spaces our bodies encounter to explore concepts of space, perception, time, and memory. At once colourful and sensorial, yet poetic, these installations re-contextualize perceptions of interior and exterior spaces, familiar places, the structures and surfaces our bodies encounter, and the spaces we create for ourselves. Photographs on translucent silk, drape over architectural and organic forms. For example, hand shaped maple from a beloved family maple tree is used as a support for imagery containing the tree as it exists through time during the span of one year. Through overlapping perspectives, layering, draping, folding, the use of light and air, and a consideration for materiality and time in sculpture and image making, Billows and boughs challenges and expands upon the ways we perceive and contribute to our everyday surroundings, and how we embody and remember physical space as psychological and sensorial experiences.
"The tree responsible for influencing this body of work no longer exists. But it’s memory lives on in these photo-based sculptures. The maple elements in this piece are remnants of a beloved family maple tree transplanted from my grandmothers home. The tree was almost as old as I am and I watched it grow throughout my life. It remained a constant. Photographing the tree in multiple seasons, and draping the silk photographs over remnants of its being created a kind of impermanent memory object that holds the memory of this beloved tree long after it’s gone." - Natalie Hunter
Natalie Hunter wishes to acknowledge the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts in producing this body of work.