April Matisz
April writes in response the Motherhood works, “These works were all made from 2017-2018 with the help of a grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. In this body of work, I explore the ambivalence of the artist-mother; the suppression of her identity and desire; and the complexity of her relationship to her children, caretaking role, and dominant cultural narratives around feminine identities.”
She states, “My studio practice is rooted in human relationships with the environment. I explore many faucets of this relationship, such as personal and collective concepts of nature; the ways in which nature is disinterested in the human condition; and the cognitive biases and psychology of humans and how it relates to the Anthropocene. Through much of my work I imagine potential worlds that are life-affirming and more knowledgably entangled with ecosystems. I am interested in physical forces that have shaped our world, from the geological to the evolutionary, as well as the phenomenological ways in which we exist and understand ourselves. With my background in the sciences, I respond to the knowledge science has brought us, while also engaging with the poetic knowledge that the arts provide. Both kinds of knowledge are valid and complementary, and I make this apparent in my practice.
Painting and drawing are central to my practice. I have also employed printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, installation, and sound works to explore certain ideas. My working method involves thinking through materials. The mark-making I employ and visual imagery I develop emerges as a conversation between myself and the materials. This dialogue is informed by the way particular colours, forms, and compositions affect my thinking, as well as information that I have gathered and brought into the conversation. From texts and podcasts to social media imagery and walks, the information I seek out and come across daily becomes a secondary type of material that is considered, questioned, and manipulated in my artistic process.”
