Our whirlwind series of nights at Richmond’s Bridgeport Industrial Park wrapped up this last week with a final celebration of the art work made and now installed on site.
Blackberry/Butterfly Net
This temporary sculptural installation is made from invasive blackberry vines harvested from the Bridgeport Industrial Park. Inspired by childhood memories of running in a field with a butterfly net, the artist Sharon Kallis embarked on a creative process exploring the nature of hooped forms, working with seasonal materials. The blackberry fibre rope that comprises the work was made by many local people who participated in a series of artist-led workshops, and the installation is presented in gratitude to the many hands and voices of the community that led to its creation.
Commissioned as part of the Pollinator Pasture project, Emily Carr University of Art + Design in partnership with the City of Richmond.
Thank you to the people who brought their hands and voices to this work.
Jaymie Johnson as project assistant and Kathleen Cathcart as a dedicated rope maker as well as: T. Hesketh, C.Cartiere, N. Strauss, L. Egan, F.Egan, A.Egan, A. Hanemaayer, A. Knowlson, Neena, Nihal, Simarpreet, Marian, B. Jones, Tracy, Amy, K.M Cho, E. Udal, L. Douglas, E. Yon, R.Graham, J.Macdonald, N.Collins, S. Ze, M. Smetzer, L. Smetzer, C. Damian, E. Sarvi, K. Emami, R. Williams, B. Campbell, M. Dee, K. Dee, R. Dee, C. Lam, C. Lam, B.Lam, A. Boomgaardt, M. Boomgaardt, Z. Cilliers, L. Weidenhammer and D. Gowman.
and thanks to the City of Richmond Operations staff for installation assistance.
Lori Weidenhammer was our guest speaker on the last work night, and writes beautifully about her experience in the project here.
The artwork and project intention literally came together that last night- as we are eating the fruit of this exquisite invasive that many both love and loath. Though invasive, the fruit is delicious, the bush provides habitat for many birds and is also a prime pollinator food source- and the fibre was used for weaving traditional beeskeps in Ireland. Using wax from Hives for Humanity ( a gift from the bees) we preserved the rope made from the fibres, and ate berries. The natural cycle for which we are a part- and the net to which we are tied- could not have been more obvious.
The final celebration took place on August 13 2016
for more photos of this project visit flickr
more about this project can be found here