your silence creates a world for my language
sophie anne edwards
June 18 to July 17, 2021
180 Projects is thrilled to welcome our the community back to the gallery for the opening reception of your silence creates a world for my language by sophie anne edwards on June 18, 7-9 pm. Covid precautions will be in place, limited visitors allowed in the gallery at a time. The artist will be in attendance. Artist talk at 8pm on Instagram live To make an appointment to view the exhibition at other times please contact us via oneeightyprojects@gmail.com
your silence creates a world for my language
This durational, process-driven text/ile installation project speaks with, and to, the quiet violences traced together in the s-groove lines of the invasive emerald ash borer. Important ecologically and culturally (canoes, baseball bats, and other material culture), the ashtree, with its vulvic bark, is also a source of women’s medicine. Its devastation is linked to the same processes and silences that frame and re/produce environmental racism and gendered violence.
sophie anne edwards
sophie anne edwards (she/her/settler) is an environmental artist, geopoet and curator of English and French descent based on Mnidoo Mnising (Manitoulin Island), northeastern Ontario. A geographer (SSHRC funded, PhD Candidate, Queen’s U) she is interested in the spatial imaginary, geopoetics, creative field research, and the possibilities of interspecies collaboration. Through her field- and installation-based practice she engages with the complexities of local ecosystems (social, cultural, historical, colonial, environmental).
She is a co-founder of 4elements Living Arts, acting as 4e’s founding artistic/executive director from 2003-2018 during which time she designed and curated many community engaged projects including the Connections Trail which won an Ontario Lieutenant Governor award for cultural landscape heritage preservation, The Bonnie Blink land use history research project (in collaboration with Queen’s U Geography), River School (the Art + Science of River Ecology), and Elemental Festival (multidisciplinary site-specific work). She has designed and facilitated hundreds of workshops, engagements and collaborative processes for artists, educators, children, families and intergenerational groups. She is a sought after facilitator by educators interested in creative research, land-based early learning, and ‘Reggio’ approaches.
Her curatorial, media and visual and writing work are supported by the Ontario Arts Council, and the Canada Council for the Arts. She is a highly respected arts consultant, administrator and mentor, supporting artists and organizations across the Province.
This exhibition was generously supported by the City of Sault Ste. Marie Cultural Fund, the Ontario Arts Council, and our community fundraising initiatives.