EXHIBITION: The Purpose is to Feel Deeply // Works by Kimberly Edgar (Toronto/Dawson City/Ottawa)
DATES: Friday, March 8 to Sunday, March 31, 2019
OPENING RECEPTION: Friday, March 8, 2019, 7:00-10:00 PM // Part of Possible Worlds 4-Year Anniversary Party
CURATOR: PW Co-Director Melanie Yugo
New illustrations and zines by Kimberly and a special PW artist edition featuring their work will be available for purchase.
Entry is free. This exhibition takes place on the second-floor of a plaza and is only accessible by stairs (unfortunately there is no ramp or elevator).
Possible Worlds is pleased to present our first exhibition of 2019, part of a series highlighting Ottawa-Gatineau based or born emerging graphic artists.
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
In The Purpose is to Feel Deeply, interdisciplinary artist and illustrator Kimberly Edgar explores their personal experiences with depression, structural barriers and self-care within an increasingly volatile and violent society.
Edgar’s watercolour illustrations reveal a modern-day Garden of Eden, where paradise is in jeopardy and where life is restrained, passive and paralyzed. Evocative of Edvard Munch’s The Scream, monocoloured human bodies lie in vulnerable positions within earthly contexts, stripped down to their essence, unclothed or shirtless. They seek refuge yet are aware that predators lurk by and that unpredictable forces, from nature to nightmares, cannot be tamed or altered.
Edgar integrates direct commentary, a reflection of their comic arts practice, to pose statements to the audience. In doing so, they invite viewers to join them in an exploration of the human condition in contemporary life.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My work revolves around confronting and working through difficult feelings, exploring my emotions publicly. It becomes a site for me to process the experiences that I have no words for. My body of work has therefore consisted of a lot of intuitive processes that I use to try and find access to deeper (sometimes uncomfortable) truths.
Sometimes depression is a chemical imbalance, and sometimes it is a reasonable response to a violent reality. What happens when, in our individualistic western society, the onus of mental health is placed on the individual, on self care, as opposed to a structural change? How do I function in a system that wants me to fix myself when it is the system itself, not me, that is broken? This work is presented as an intuitive response to these questions and the stresses of living in the chaos that is contemporary life.
BIOGRAPHY
Kimberly Edgar is an interdisciplinary artist who currently works primarily in illustration, comics, and drawing. After graduating from art school at the Ottawa School of Art, Kim moved to the Yukon for almost four years to pursue sculpture and performance art, then to Toronto. It was in Toronto where Kimberly started making comics and illustration more seriously, and after starting a small art business, Edgar has finally found a practice and routine suited to their chronically ill body. Between teaching art, selling designed goods and prints, and taking on commissions, and writing comic books, Kimberly is now constantly working.
Website: www.kimberlyedgar.com
Instagram: @deadbirdparty