Are you asking me to purge every heartache?

Carrie Smith
May 28 – July 8, 2022
Reception: June 11, 7 – 9pm

Clay, much like the physical body and consciousness, bears the history of the actions taken upon it as it is shaped. No stage of development can be separated from those that came before.

 youprotectedourmothers

This mirrors a  truth in the human experience. There is memory in the body – memory in the spirit, and our experiences happen outside our linear understanding of time. Memories are living.Ceramic, once fired to vitrification, will last in some form indefinitely, yet this strength is a precarious one. Once  fired, clay loses its ability to be recycled and reformed – it becomes completely inflexible and fragile as a result.

acceptourhumbleprayers

A manifestation of the visual imagery in recurrent memories and a semiosis of genetic and lived trauma, ‘Are you asking me to purge every heartbreak?’ utilizes ritual iconography through the lens of a Roman Catholic upbringing and a deeply rooted Slavic pagan and cultural heritage. Exploring a period of profound transformation, the work oscillates between critique, renunciation, reclamation, and contrition.

redeemusforever

Carrie Smith is an emerging artist located on Treaty 4 land in Regina Saskatchewan. Working primarily in ceramic sculpture, she incorporates ideas of the abject, the surreal, and her internal landscape within each piece. Employing semiosis, Smith explores ritual iconography and ideology through the lenses of her Roman Catholic upbringing and her Slavic cultural heritage. She aims to traverse involuntary recurrent memory within her work, and bring the viewer into a narrative loop outside linear notions concerning time.