“Out of Salt” sign at the entrance of the Nanaimo Art Gallery by Will Holder for exhibition Fielding Road. Nanaimo Art Gallery. 2022.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
In Fielding Road, curators Elisa Ferrari and Jesse Birch invited us to think alongside the work of the late poet and photographer Peter Culley.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Students practicing drawing in the Fielding Road exhibition.
One of my pieces for Fielding Road was the labour intensive process of perfuming and hand dying a limited edition of 400 black muslin masks for visitors to wear in and out of the exhibition.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
visitors in the masks. There are two different fragrances of mask. One, Radar Tinsel has notes of Himalayan blackberry, Spanish broom, half-hard hotdog bun, Trailing blackberry, Gorse, Pine forest, endless bits of personal and industrial refuse, Arbutus, pink snow, dry Maple leaf, Crown Royal bag, English ivy-covered barn, parcel of mulch, discarded lottery tickets.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Plexiglass boxes housed the masks, titled respectively Radar Tinsel and Alka Seltzer Stars Scattered on Blue Felt, which smells of Laurel Falls, Cattails, dew, Marsh Grass, Black Poplar, Usnea, Red Alder, muslin, wild Mint, Dandelion wine, Oregon Grape, fairy lights, drowning, peach Nehi, Maple trees, Fanta, heat wave, Yorkshire alum and muskeg. Titles are drawn from poems in Peter Culley’s collection Hammer Town.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Visitor and curator wearing the masks. Maya Beaudry’s work in foreground.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Installation view of Neoprene Longjohns in front of Peter Culley’s photographs.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
Installation view of Neoprene Longjohns.
detail of Neoprene Longjohns. Leather gloves courtesy of Jane Ellison and Elisa Ferrari. Pigmented powder perfume has notes of salt-covered pine trees, shed, whale bones, dream teeth, hungry dogs, helmets filled with milk.
Exhibition view of Mystic Pools of Social Housing in Fielding Road, Nanaimo Art Gallery, 2022.
detail 1 of Mystic Pools of Social Housing. Found leather gloves and pigmented powder perfume. 2022.
detail 2 of Mystic Pools of Social Housing. The perfume powder has notes of vinyl, copper wire, rubber, tar, rust, moonshine, niblets blackening on the grill, lowering chopper, motor bike, miner's strike, bearish Lavender, ATV tracks, fear of Creosote and coal smoke, black letter, monochrome layer, explosion, worker's graves, nitrate, choking fog, old leather car seat under arbutus and disappearing.
Exhibition view of tiny bottles of excess Eau de Parfum with documentary on Willie Thrasher. Nanaimo Art Gallery.
Photo courtesy of Sean Fenzl, Nanaimo Art Gallery
The Excess fragrance from Neoprene Longjohns was made into an Eau de Parfum for the Fielding Road Archive that was up for the duration of the exhibition.
Mystic pools of social housing excess made into Eau de Parfum. Nanaimo Art Gallery. 2022.
Oregon Grape on the Fielding Road. As prepraratory research for my work in the exhibition, Jesse and Elisa took me for a site visit to the Fielding Road in Nanaimo.
looking up on the Fielding Road
The Nanaimo dump, covered over by a hill
Discarded losing lottery tickets
ATV tracks on the Fielding Road
Tree lichen on the Fielding Road
Cedar shavings on the Feilding Road
