Bridget
Fairbank
@bpracticalpottery
In this stark time, we are now culturally primed to connect with nature and nurture the fate of the human condition. This fire season marks Fairbank’s 10th year spotting wildfires in Northern Alberta. She has seen wolves and caribou migrate south because of un-relenting Boreal fires, ash falling like rain and lightening start a single tree top flame extinguished by rain five minutes later. More than 1,500 days perched above the trees, metronomes of time swaying gently in the wind, has pressed upon Fairbank the real and quantifiable importance of the individual.
Please consider the ceramic material’s connection to land and commemoration when viewing this work. Clay is the most long lasting archival material we use. Will the plants represented here take over or will these small layered, abstracted personal expressions be the souvenir of a perished plant? Fairbank proposes a compromise: coexistence by attentive interaction. Rather than translating the specific these tiles are meant to be plant-like, expressive, personal and joyful, a reminder that we are not apart from, but a part of nature. A reminder that growth is possible.
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Arch of Triumph
Giant Hogweed and Autumn Olive
Ceramic, 2020
Hogweed out-competes grasses and other forage species, reducing food sources for wildlife and livestock, and competing with native vegetation for nutrients and light.
Autumn Olive can grow into dense thickets and out-compete native vegetation. It also has nitrogen-fixing roots that can change the nutrient cycle in the soil making it difficult for native species that depend on poor soils to grow.
Left $1450
Right $1450
Low Hanging Fruit: Plum
Ceramic, 2020
A thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort.
$950 each
$2850 Whole composition
Low Hanging Fruit: Pear
Ceramic, 2020
A white tile is placed here to represent absence. A reminder to cherish the plenty as the shift in clime will change this abundance.
$850
Flowers and plants have long been codified and are powerful communicative objects. Fairbank’s past work considers flora, wild or domestic, as a living witness to humanity. Now she asks the viewer to witness the plants, invasive, local and exotic that are attempting to exist, cleaning our air, having sex
and fighting for survival here in Alberta.
Low Hanging Fruit: Apple
Ceramic, 2020
A thing or person that can be won, obtained, or persuaded with little effort.
$1280 each
La Petite Mort X + Y
Ceramic, 2020
A nod to the function of flowers as reproductive organs and the struggle to survive.
Bachelor's Button (Centaurea cyanus) an ornamental plant of European decent in gardens was chosen for the impetus of this piece because of its tongue-in-cheek name eluding to human heterosexual reproduction and carrying capacity of a system. Some flowers are seen here to break out of the normality of their rows
X $450, Y $150
The Observer
Ceramic, 2020
Common Yarrow, (Achillea millefolium) grounded and useful, flourishes upon a double headed figure amongst bright active un identifiable bits and pieces, representing the metal challenges and joy of a forestry observer. This is my face as Janus- god of beginnings, gates, transitions, time, duality, doorways, passages, and endings.
$1250
To See or Not to See?
Ceramic, 2020
Will we observe and notice our actions daily?
Ceramic garlands adorn this mirror tiled with Plainsman H441G- a black Cone10 clay of Albertan Feldspar that fires beige and blushes in a high-fire kiln. Plainsman clay has been mining clay in Alberta since 1962.
$4750
Sensitivity to Ephemera
Ceramic, 2020
Will we observe and notice our actions daily?
Ceramic garlands adorn this mirror tiled with Plainsman H441G- a black Cone10 clay of Albertan Feldspar that fires beige and blushes in a high-fire kiln. Plainsman clay has been mining clay in Alberta since 1962.
$950
Height of The Seasons: Summer
Ceramic, 2020
Fairbank’s Fire Tower is a near straight climb on a steel ladder. She dons a harness, gloves, boots and weather appropriate gear weather-bound and exposed and climbs. The wind is felt as is the snow, the sun, the rain. world comes alive.
$275
Height of The Seasons: Spring
Ceramic, 2020
The first hint of yellowing aspen and brown tilled fields- the snow will come soon.
$275
Height of The Seasons: Fall
Ceramic, 2020
The world comes alive. Every color of green, the trees breathe and rustle- what will the season bring? Drought, rain, snow, wind.
$275
Land Management
Ceramic, 2020
Clay dug from Tower Road construction and fired with no alteration. This piece stands to ask: How will we use the earth, what value will we find there?
Alberta is rich with clay, gas, oil and forests. Fairbank has spent 7 seasons and spotted over 100 fires North of Fort McMurray memorizing winter roads, gas lines and drill sites. We cannot begin to think about nature without land management. From your back yard to Canada to beyond there is a connectedness we must acknowledge.
Join artist Bridget fairbank + Victoria Sanchez at the via the @albertacraftcouncil Instagram for a live tour of the exhibition Ceramica Botanica . Monday March 30 at 1pm MST.
#SocialDistancingButLovingCraft
