KRISTIN IVEY

BIO

Kristin Ivey is an emerging artist currently based in the rural, Rocky Mountain town of Coleman, Alberta. Kristin originally hails from Halifax, Nova Scotia and is a graduate of the NSCAD University. Since graduation, she has participated in exhibitions and given artist talks in Halifax, Toronto, London, Calgary, Lethbridge and St. John’s. Kristin relocated to the Crowsnest Pass in August of 2008 to attend a collaborative residency at the Gushul Studios, sponsored by the Trap/Door Artist Run Centre. With the exception of attending residencies over the past year at Montana Artist Refuge, Vermont Studio Center and Centrum in Port Townsend, she has remained in “the Pass” ever since. Currently she is working towards two upcoming solo exhibitions at ARTsPLACE in Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia and White Water Gallery in North Bay, Ontario.

STATEMENT

“My current work is focused on the building of soft sculptural constructions that are strongly influenced by both the imagination and the internal structures of the human body. For the Alberta Biennial, I’ve constructed a series of long tube-like forms built from assembled bits of rummaged fabric. These tube structures hang and coil from the gallery walls, pooling in a chaotic heap on the floor. The tubal forms attempt to map — in a highly fictionalized way — the human intestinal tract. This system hangs completely and inexplicably removed from its human context, sitting grotesquely in the middle of the gallery floor, large enough to walk amongst and soft enough to touch. The work has grown out of years of working in various health care institutions, where I began to develop an interest in the ways in which we, as patients conceptualize our own internal workings and illnesses. Our experience with common illness (colds, flu, muscle pain, minor infection) is primarily a domestic one; in the home, in bed, blankets, sofas, pillows, with soft and familiar surroundings. Ultimately we are at home with ‘soft’ and associate soft with a place of retreat. With that in mind, I began to employ second hand fabrics accumulated from domestic sources; upholstery, curtains, tablecloths, placemats to construct these sculptural forms. Rather than depicting our internal structures with a more typical cool, scientific approach, these sculptures reflect a more personal and emotional response to our own physicality.”