What is the shape of sound? Local artists Anita Levesque and Bradley Smith will attempt to express the essence of communication itself through drawing, writing, and sculpture in their installation titled Re-surface, opening at Touchstones Nelson on August 26.
Heartlab is an ongoing creative collaboration between Levesque and Smith, who have previously shown their work at the Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson in 2009, and Stride Gallery in Calgary in 2010. Effectively a “relationship laboratory,” heartlab explores the connections between the visual arts and writing, as well as the dynamics between the two artists, who have been a couple for over 15 years.
Re-surface is a delicately constructed environment where language and landscape meet. Star-like forms are mirrored in radiating letter “a” sculptures and splayed books attached to the walls. A large sound poem written by Smith sprawls across one wall, it’s negative spaces coloured and cut out into a lacy network by Levesque. By both mirroring one another and asserting their individual visions, the couple searches for a shared voice.
Heartlab will also be offering a hands-on collaborative art making workshop at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 8. Couples are encouraged to attend. Participants will playfully explore the creative dynamics between text and image, and between one another as collaborators. No experience or materials are required. Participants will be invited to display the resulting artwork in the gallery’s hallway display cases.
Also, stay tuned for an interactive online component to Re-surface which will be launched at late September, hosted on the Touchstones Nelson website.