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.
To a green thought in a green shade
Antique glass plate negative, glass, rock
Variable dimensions
2025
Installation: PLATFORM Centre, Winnipeg
To a green thought in a green shade might be seen as a distillation of the key components of the Through, and through exhibition: light, glass, and trees. It is a spare work featuring an antique glass plate negative. I was curious to see how trees had been photographed a century ago, and I was drawn to how glass plate negatives tie stained glass and photography together, so I started a search for negatives online. I thank the unknown maker who contributed to this piece more than 100 years later.
I like the simplicity of holding a light up to a little image, which results in something else that grows and shifts beyond that simplicity. An idea that expands beyond. Similarly, the green glass, which to the eye does not look textured, scratched, or patterned, reveals itself to have magic hidden within.
The title references an Andrew Marvell poem, “The Garden” (1681):
“… Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness;
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find,
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that’s made
To a green thought in a green shade. …”
Image Credit left: Daisy Wu, right: Sarah Ciurysek