INSTALLATION
21 PILLOWS
It is the landscape that surrounds her home - the boreal forest and Ontario’s rugged Canadian Shield - that has inspired Cheryl Wilson-Smith to create this in-gallery landscape called 21 Pillows.
The artist invites you to enter and experience the installation. She also asks you to participate in its development by selecting and placing one or more of the kiln-fired ‘rocks’ onto the pillows.
Collectively, your interaction and those of other visitors will shape the installation. As you move in and through the exhibition, take time to contemplate the vulnerability of our natural world and how the actions of humanity affect it over time.
In forming this exhibition, Cheryl Wilson-Smith produced and fired 10,000 glass rocks in her studio in Red Lake, Ontario. The rocks are fragile, yet strong, much like the land that inspired their creation.
Wilson-Smith has received numerous awards, including the 2018 Chalmers Arts Fellowship and the 2014 RBC Award for Glass. 21 Pillows is her first large-scale installation project.
10,000 glass rocks and 21 linen pillows
approx. 6 x 14 meters
Cheryl during installation
This interactive installation features 21 pillows placed on the gallery floor. Cheryl invites visitors to enter the dimly lit gallery, reminiscent of dusk, and pick a glass rock – one from thousands designed and kiln-fired by the artist – to place on the pillows.
This collective shaping of the environment allows us to consider the passage of time and the vulnerability of both humanity and the natural world.
Wilson-Smith lives in Red Lake, on the Canadian Shield surrounded by the boreal forest. Her exhibition is a prescient reminder of how we affect the natural world over time. With every addition, every move, every alteration, what was there before is forever altered.
“ As the installation travels, I’ve begun to realize it is not only a comment about environmental issues, this is a show about what we can do together. If each one of us does a small bit we can make big changes! ” — Cheryl Wilson Smith
#21PILLOWS
Follow this installation as it grows and changes: on Instagram or on Facebook
Please tag your posts with #21pillows to join my collective hashtag journey.
click image to enlarge
METAMORPHOSIS
Over 100 glass butterfly-like pieces and 5 clay cocoons. Installed at the Dryden Regional Training Center, in Dryden Ontario. Completed in 2012.
over 100 glass pieces
approx. 18 x 10 meters
DONOR RECOGNITION WALL
Installed in the Red Lake Heritage Centre, completed in 2014.
Handmade ceramic tile
6.5 x 3.3 meters
