By SALT SPRING ARTS
Artcraft’s summer Showcase exhibition series continues on the Mahon Hall stage with a solo show by Rosie Schinners opening this Friday, Aug. 2.
Working with techniques such as mono-printing and collage, Schinners explores the potential of paper as a versatile medium of expression in both two- and three-dimensional approaches while asking the question, “What goes into making a ‘home’?”
Two streams of work are in conversation with one another in A Place Called Home. One is a series of treehouses, symbolizing places Schinners once called home, that exist in a space between reality, memory and dreamscape. The complement is a collection of bird nests that come from the same surreal place.
“For humans, we gather and carry materials through time to surround ourselves with distinctive character, identity and what eventually become memories of places we once existed in. Birds also spend time gathering a unique combination of materials to create an ideal nest to call their home,” Schinners observed. “Whether crafted by human hands or shaped by animal instinct and necessity, our dwellings speak to a shared desire for sanctuary amidst the chaos of the world.”
Schinners is a multidisciplinary artist who resides on Salt Spring. Working primarily with vintage print imagery, she combines hand-cut collage with vibrant splashes of colour to bring new life to old images. She looks to explore and express fleeting moments of magic, memory and nostalgia.
Originally from Barrie, Ont., Schinners holds a Bachelor of Art from the University of Guelph as well as a Bachelor of Fine Art from NSCAD University in Halifax. Although focused on oil painting during her formal art education, collage and paper-based art was always in the background. It became a primary medium after a meaningful workshop with long-time favourite artist and author Nick Bantock in 2014. In 2019, she was selected and collaborated with Kolaj Magazine as the World Collage Day Featured Artist and has since led collage-based residencies and workshops in Canada and the United States.
She has been inspired to create her current work in part by her rural landscape and the variety of birds, both large and small, that she can see from the window of her current home. Her colourful artworks reference nests and treehouses, and make use of upcycled and foraged materials that some might consider scrap, “as if birds themselves were exploring my art studio to create new homes,” Schinners notes.
“The fragmented nature of collage and the inherent glitches and imperfections of the mono-printing process speak to the characteristics of memory itself,” she explains in her artist statement. “Repetitive layering of printing acts in much the same manner as how our thoughts revisit the same recollections frequently — sometimes welcomed, sometimes not. My use of vibrant colour is an invitation into an aspirational space, where joy, magic and playfulness are celebrated.”
An opening reception for the Showcase takes place from 6 to 8 p.m. on Aug. 2, and an artist talk is set for Sunday, Aug. 4 at 2 p.m.
Showcase exhibitions run during Artcraft hours at Mahon Hall, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.