Connie Morey: Dwelling
Felt & Found Sculpture Installation
August 9 - September 1st
Influenced by the artist's rural childhood surrounded by family traditions of masonry, construction, craft, and textiles, "Dwelling" is an installation comprised of felted bricks, photographs of worn skeleton buildings, and a small structure built from reclaimed wood & infiltrated by wool colonies.
Working from her personal history, "this exhibition merges the practices of building with dwelling, alongside the gendered practices of men constructing from the outside and women nurturing from the inside...
"I often think that my mother would have been an artist if she had lived in another time. In retrospect, I think that almost everything she did around the home was a creative activity in the guise of domestic work. She sewed our dresses and clothes, she taught me to knit, crochet, embroider, quilt, craft, bake, draw, and she tried to teach me to play the piano and to sing.
“My father was a builder. He belonged to a family of masons. My grandfather, uncles and father were known for their skill with stonework, but they also worked on small building projects, framing homes and laying brick. When I was around 10, my grandfather passed away and my parents sold their small farm and bought my grandparent’s house, which sat on the edge of eleven acres of woods. In the woods was a tree fort that my father and his four brothers built in their youth. My sisters and I played in it, and once, in a moment of stubbornness, I ran away to the safety of its walls. It was a way to experience independence while still feeling sheltered and supported by the old wooden floor that embodied history.”
Morey is a the Programming Manager at arc.hive Artist Run Centre, a Community Arts Consultant and teaches at the University of Victoria and Vancouver Island School of Art. She has exhibited and performed locally, across Canada and overseas in Europe, Australia and Malaysia.
See more of her work here
