Sarah Ciurysek is a Canadian artist working mainly in photography, video, and installation to examine our relationship to the ground. The artwork typically consists of large-scale colour photographs of soil, grass, fields, and floors; these works reference graves, death, life, nourishment, history, archeology, and rural sensibilities and concerns.
Sarah was raised in northern Alberta and continues to make much of her work there. She trained at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2003), Parsons The New School for Design, and Concordia University (MFA 2007). Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US, in the UK and Austria, and in South Africa. She has participated in national and international residencies and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts grants. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.
Sarah Ciurysek is a Canadian artist working mainly in photography, video, and installation to examine our relationship to the ground. The artwork typically consists of large-scale colour photographs of soil, grass, fields, and floors; these works reference graves, death, life, nourishment, history, archeology, and rural sensibilities and concerns.
Sarah was raised in northern Alberta and continues to make much of her work there. She trained at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2003), Parsons The New School for Design, and Concordia University (MFA 2007). Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US, in the UK and Austria, and in South Africa. She has participated in national and international residencies and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts grants. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.
Sarah Ciurysek is a Canadian artist working mainly in photography, video, and installation to examine our relationship to the ground. The artwork typically consists of large-scale colour photographs of soil, grass, fields, and floors; these works reference graves, death, life, nourishment, history, archeology, and rural sensibilities and concerns.
Sarah was raised in northern Alberta and continues to make much of her work there. She trained at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2003), Parsons The New School for Design, and Concordia University (MFA 2007). Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US, in the UK and Austria, and in South Africa. She has participated in national and international residencies and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts grants. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.
Sarah Ciurysek is a Canadian artist working mainly in photography, video, and installation to examine our relationship to the ground. The artwork typically consists of large-scale colour photographs of soil, grass, fields, and floors; these works reference graves, death, life, nourishment, history, archeology, and rural sensibilities and concerns.
Sarah was raised in northern Alberta and continues to make much of her work there. She trained at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2003), Parsons The New School for Design, and Concordia University (MFA 2007). Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US, in the UK and Austria, and in South Africa. She has participated in national and international residencies and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts grants. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.
Sarah Ciurysek is a Canadian artist working mainly in photography, video, and installation to examine our relationship to the ground. The artwork typically consists of large-scale colour photographs of soil, grass, fields, and floors; these works reference graves, death, life, nourishment, history, archeology, and rural sensibilities and concerns.
Sarah was raised in northern Alberta and continues to make much of her work there. She trained at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (BFA 2003), Parsons The New School for Design, and Concordia University (MFA 2007). Her work has been exhibited across Canada and in the US, in the UK and Austria, and in South Africa. She has participated in national and international residencies and has been the recipient of Canada Council, Manitoba Arts Council, and Alberta Foundation for the Arts grants. She is an Assistant Professor at the School of Art, University of Manitoba.
Grounded, Leaping
Grounded, Leaping
Site-specific audio walk at Daylesford Farm, Gloucestershire, England
MP3 player and headphones, 8 tracks of variable duration
2015
Grounded, Leaping was commissioned and made during a residency for the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World in England, for the 2015 United Nations International Year of Soils.
For the residency, I was sited at Daylesford Organic Farm, in Gloucestershire, England. I began by familiarizing myself with Daylesford and surrounds by touring the farm, meeting staff and locals, and by walking the farm trails and nearby footpaths. I then interviewed Daylesford staff and local community members about their experiences with and relationships to soil. After selecting portions and editing the audio tracks, I constructed an overall audio story that loosely follows the human life cycle (the first voice is a child’s, the last is an elderly man’s), and which provides a type of portrait of Daylesford. I mapped a trail through the farm’s Market Garden that corresponds with the content of the stories told. The result is a site-specific audio walk at Daylesford, as well as a gallery audio installation.
I chose to respond to the notion of ‘terroir’, a sense of place based on the soil, by drawing from what people working at the farm or living nearby already know and feel about the soil. While walking around the farm, listeners of Grounded, Leaping must piece together what they are hearing with what they are seeing, feeling, and smelling, and also with what they must imagine.