TOPOGRAPHIES OF CARE Art residency with hcma architecture + design
https://hcma.ca/tilt/artist-in-residence/#shirley-wiebe
With day-to-day life so dramatically altered during the pandemic, and disconnection and isolation so prevalent, Vancouver-based interdisciplinary artist Shirley Wiebe was driven to explore the theme of connection, asking how community and solidarity were nurtured despite extremely trying circumstances.
The resulting project, ‘Topographies of Care,’ is one-of-a-kind in its three-fold nature, situated at three different hcma office sites--Vancouver, Victoria, and Edmonton—where over twelve months Shirley developed a trio of related mural installations through her characteristic blend of printed images, paint, and pencil. Each installment explored an elemental material or force; in Vancouver, metal; in Victoria, water; in Edmonton, earth.
Artist Statement
How would I collaborate with three offices at a distance to portray their collective qualities?
My response was to ask each person to contribute sketches, schematics, writing, or photography. The printed submissions reflected their shared range of passions and ideas. These would serve as their witness marks, the raw materials to inform my final work. Through a process of collage, featuring pencil and paint markings, the paper fragments were transformed in coming together in a series of new wholes.
The completed project evolved into three intricate paper filigree installations uniquely integrated into thearchitectural features of each office space. With the paper pasted directly onto the wall as a second skin, the fragility of its material nature took on the inherent strength of the office architecture, merging and becoming one with it.
Each work is unique to its particular office setting and geographic location. While the colour palette shifts to suit the chosen elemental, a cohesiveness emerges given the similar technique advancing each installation—a visual language in which each fragment serves the full statement; in which each is a clue essential to the bigger puzzle.
Vancouver Install: December 2020
Element: Metal. Structural significance, downtown location large urban centre, alchemy of ideas.
Installation work is a concentrated physical gesture, akin to the building process; ladder, tools, and materials are typically all spread out. For me, however, the blueprint reveals itself through the action of making, with each choice or decision leading to the next.
I developed the final work on site over two weeks of the holiday season. Family gatherings and travel had been prohibited due to public health guidelines. I passed by twinkling lights and colourful displays on my walks back and forth through quiet downtown streets.
Time disappeared; daylight turned to darkness through the window beside me. I worked alone in the alcove space that had been selected for my installation. A video was being produced in the
larger office space and I was privileged to overhear the narration of a new book, ‘How to Create
Community Buildings with Impact’ – a live podcast that guided my hands and movements, immersing me in a significant moment of creation, a moment about creation itself.
Victoria Install: July 2021
Element: Water. Vancouver Island surrounded by ocean, water our source of life.
I adapted and simplified the series’ developing concept for Victoria’s installation, as pandemic restrictions continued to prevent non-essential travel between the mainland and Vancouver Island. We chose a freestanding column as the site for the piece. Collaged segments, created in my Vancouver studio this time, were sent to Victoria with a small-scale model, diagram, and tutorial video. Three Victoria team members collaborated to install the basic collage forms with my virtual supervision.
A completely unique experience for all of us. One month later, I could travel and was able to add the final layer of images, drawing, and painting. By that time, several people were back at the office again, and fortunately we could work side by side, guided in a parallel process. We had casual passing conversations. Once the norm but no longer, these interactions were newly poignant.
Edmonton: August 2021
Element: Earth. Prairie surrounded by small communities, humanity, sustenance and renewal.
Our collaborative discussions had been ongoing since late fall when the Edmonton office was just newly opened. Within the pristine white space, we eventually chose a long entrance wall for the installation. I envisioned the collage as a sweeping horizontal landscape and created a small-scale model for their consideration. Again, the basic form was created in my studio.
By August, BC’s Interior was the site of numerous spreading wildfires, underlining the growing climate crisis. With short notice on highway blockages, I travelled to Edmonton by air with the rolled-up collage. A few people had recently returned to the Edmonton office and we were able to work together in the open space. They had a clear view as the work developed and I listened in on creative deliberations for building projects. One team member commented on how the collage occupied space in their peripheral vision when seated at their work station, which pleased me. Its impact was being felt. A few weeks later, the fourth wave again shut down work at the office.
Epilogue
The completed three-fold project gave me a sense of true fulfillment. It required everyone’s adaptability and patience, as well as creative ingenuity and perseverance. We endured three waves of a challenging public health crisis—together—and strangely it afforded us a unique opportunity for extended, adaptive interaction and connection. It was a cumulative learning process during which each completed phase informed the next.