The Silence that the Walls Feed Back to Me – Christina Mathieson

FEBRUARY 5 – MARCH 28, 2018
CLOSING RECEPTION: THURSDAY, MARCH 15, 2018 @ 6–7PM
REFRESHMENTS TO FOLLOW AT THE PALOMINO
LOCATION: STRIDE +15 WINDOW SPACE
ARTS COMMONS 205 8TH AVENUE SE

 

In my workspace I discovered that the mind becomes unresponsive and distant when the presence of death is looming; it is not the physical body that disappears first, it is the soul that departs hours before. I learned that the body uses every muscle to exhale a heavy breath, warmth exits the corpse slowly, and its colour fades.

“Silence that the Walls Feed Back to Me” examines how my role as witness to one’s demise – body mutation, the departed soul, and a levitating spirit – creates a workspace of loss, an intimate relationship to the Grotesque, and a self-reflection on Memento mori.

CHRISTINA MATHIESON is an artist born and raised in Calgary, Alberta completing her BFA at the Alberta College of Art + Design. Her practice represents acts of preserving bodies of the dead, performative rituals of death and care, and a cathartic release for loss and the stages of grief.