Jessica Slipp’s immersive landscapes and Alicia Proudfoot’s playful yet poignant take on chronic illness offer a new perspective on the relationship between the environment and our own bodies. It’s a double feature that promises to leave you thinking, feeling, laughing.
Jessica Slipp, a Montreal-based interdisciplinary artist with roots in Edmonton, takes centre stage in the Main Gallery. Her immersive multimedia installation, “with & of (Becoming Rock),” explores the relationship between humans and the landscape through video performances and paper sculptures.
Slipp seamlessly merges herself within rocky terrains using digital prints of rock textures, which she filmed and converted into a four-channel video installation, each about an hour long — surrounded by 17 paper rock sculptures, crafted from the same paper she used to wrap herself in the videos. The sculptures, with their tears and wrinkles, mirror the wear and tear of both the land and our bodies over time.
“I’ve been working with rocks for a long time,” Slipp explains. “There was a mythology that started around rocks for me at an early age. I always saw them as pieces of the universe. I wanted to merge with the land physically and conceptually. It’s impossible, but this is my way of doing it.”
Slipp says she wants “viewers to think about their relationship with landscapes and how we’re not separate from them at all — there’s an invitation to sit, reflect, and understand that we are part of a whole system,” adding that “it’s important that the exhibition is accessible to everyone, not just artists. Even kids find it cool, which I love.”
Meanwhile, in the Art Incubator Gallery, Alicia Proudfoot’s “Breath Scaling” takes visitors on an expedition through the artist’s experience with chronic asthma, all mapped out in miniature sculptures and mixed-media works.
Her exhibit features foldable mountain maquettes made from metal light switch covers, mixed media prints and rubber chickens (yes, really).
“It started during my master’s thesis, exploring illness and my chronic asthma,” Proudfoot says. “I thought, what if I lean into that and make it performative or humorous? This show compares the experience of living with chronic pain to a mountain expedition, where my ribs are like mountains. It opens up conversations on how we talk about illness and identity”
Visitors can handle the light switch covers, touch balloon letters that emit sounds, and engage with accessibility handles that allow physical interaction with the pieces.
“I want to convey the different ways we can talk about living with pain or illness,” Proudfoot says. “Absurdity and humour can really open up conversation and make people feel more comfortable sharing. It’s about rethinking heroism and adventure and challenging how we conflate illness with identity.”
Jessica Slipp and Alicia Proudfoot will rock Harcourt House with their exhibitions from July 26 to September 7, 2024. Admission is free.
