Sue Rose, my trusted designer, has her own Trusted Space and has a gallery showing the work of her friends and herself as they create a Sacred Space from bowls. Here are the details:
February 5 - 28, 2007
Georges Goguen Gallery
CBC Building, 250 University Ave.
Moncton, New Brunswick
In the spring of 2006 I started daydreaming about creating immersive environments as artwork. My work had progressed from painting to sculpture and then to installations. I then wanted to move inside the art removing the barrier between object and observer. The Georges Goguen Gallery gave me the opportunity to create this immersive environment.
Through the course of the year I decided to create a meditative garden filled with shallow bowls made of sand-molded concrete. Each bowl would be an enclosed environment of its own supported by birch or cherry wood tripods. I showed these to several friends and once I felt their interest and wish to dive in and create their own enclosed environments I invited them to take a bowl and do just that. This transformed space is now alive with the imaginative efforts of 15 people, each with a unique expression.
I found that the friends I invited to participate were those that I felt were very creative but who didn’t often have an opportunity to participate in a show in a gallery. Many come from different disciplines; writers, musicians, painters, sculptors, woodworkers, jewelry designers, inventors. I found myself delighted, moved and enriched by their inspiration.
I transformed my bowl into a fountain adding the sound of falling water to the ambiance of the space. I also designed a suspended wooden screen at the doorway to provide a transition into the garden. My husband John and I created some small seating to encourage visitors to stay and enjoy the surroundings.
To learn more about transforming spaces I volunteered at Windsor Theatre on the Mount Allison campus in Sackville and worked on two productions helping with costume design. Decima Mitchell, the resident designer, graciously shared her knowledge of set design and opened this world to me. I hope I have succeeded in creating a space that is healing to the spirit and stimulating for the mind.
I am a member of the Bahá’í Faith and have always found its teachings an inspiration for my work. In those Writings it says, “The Great Being saith: Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value.” I think the works we see here give testimony to that ideal, that we all have beauty and stories and spark within that, in the sharing, enrich us all.
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