Ursula Johnson’s hybrid work blends sculpture, performance, and activism. A member of the Eskasoni Mi’kmaw First Nation on Cape Breton Island (Unama’ki in Mi’kmaw) in Nova Scotia, she grew up speaking the Mi’kmaw language. Johnson spent her early working life as an activist and participated in the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues at the United
Social Skins and Other Constructs: A Conversation with Wilmer Wilson IV
Cross-disciplinary artist Wilmer Wilson IV focuses on the body, how gestures and everyday materials activate it, and how images of the body are transformed through context and enter the social realm. By exploring applied skins and the circulation of images, he resists the production of simplified icons without abandoning corporeal realities.
Double Consciousness: A Conversation with Jefferson Pinder
In a career that has evolved from the performing arts to performance art, Jefferson Pinder consistently probes themes of racial identity through live performance, video, and sculpture. Key works such as Ben-Hur, Afro- Cosmonaut/Alien (White Noise), Overture (Star of Ethiopia), and Dark Matter meld historical legacy with current events, adopting references from W.E.B.
Under Construction: A Conversation with Hemall Bhuta
Hemali Bhuta’s journey into the world of installation has been fascinating. Her multi-disciplinary work focuses on the notion of in-between space, which she considers a plane where the limitations of dimensionality do not apply. By attempting to translate one medium or form into another, she questions the authority that determines the nature of a space.
Animating Sculpture: A Conversation with Graeme Patterson
Graeme Patterson makes multi-disciplinary sculptural installations, often with the end game of stop-motion animation in mind. His work is rarely still, fusing robotics, video, sound, objects, and performance into immersive environments that address dislocation, alienation, nostalgia, identity, and, recently, the fraught relationship of humans, our artifacts (physical and cultural), and the natural world.
Forms of Proliferation: A Conversation with Sofi Zezmer
Sofi Zezmer’s early biomorphic abstractions, made predominantly of plastic and occasionally loaded with hues integral to her unorthodox materials, burst into my line of vision toward the beginning of the new millennium. Though playful, her constructions touch on the intersection of science and technology while being imbued with the pulse of life, their forms continuing
Another Kind of Cell: A Conversation with Kendall Buster
Kendall Buster makes large-scale sculptures out of repeated modular units. Much of her work blurs the line between architecture and sculpture by playing on the notion of scale: while some sculptures are large enough to walk into, others put viewers in a position of power by offering a birds-eye view.
The Fully Formed is Suspect: A Conversation with Alistair Wilson
Alistair Wilson, who was born in Wales, came to Northern Ireland in the 1970s, after a period in London. For the better part of 30 years, he managed two careers–as a sculptor and as a lecturer in sculpture at the Belfast College of Art.
Forging Histories of Past and Present: A Conversation with Mariana Castillo Deball
Mariana Castillo Deball works with a range of materials and processes bearing a strong relationship to archaeology and history. Her transformative approach and deep visual understanding result in rich and resonant works that merge historical accounts and personal experience.
Reflecting on Space: A Conversation with Sharon Louden
Sharon Louden is best known for room-size, site-specific installations constructed from thousands of small components. She uses a variety of media, including painting, drawing, sculpture, and animation, aiming to capture movement and light. Within these works, industrial materials (her favorite is aluminum) are transformed into something more closely resembling forms in nature, even the human
