Over the past two decades, Samantha Dickie has applied her technical ceramicist training to foster an artistic practice that actively engages with abstraction and multiplicity. 

Her large-scale installations feature clusters of evocative clay art pieces with the intention of reflecting on the relationships between entities and the spaces within relationships. The literal gaps that exist between the individual elements in these clusters are as important as the objects themselves. The spaces provide a restorative environment to mentally, and sometimes physically, wander. Dickie invites us to explore particular dyads, such as subject-object, seen-unseen, individual-collective, and viewer-viewed. 

This dynamic changing sculpture cascades through the light-filled atrium, featuring nearly 5,000 ceramic components flowing through seven columns. As a site-specific installation, the translucent, paper-thin porcelain pieces are hand-built, torn with serrated edges, and imprinted with antique letters, drawing inspiration from the stamps of the historic Canada Post building. These suspended elements are linked by long strands, bridging the individual into a larger network of community.

The delicate and buoyant nature of the porcelain is accentuated by the crisp, folded edges of the ceramic, origami-like birds. The red birds flowing through the columns symbolize the freedom of flight, embodying boundless perspectives and the ambition to soar. 

The execution of this project, which required flexibility and tenacity, mirrors its intention within a bustling workspace. The piece aims to provide viewers with a moment of pause from a demanding workday, enabling them to garner an unbound and invaluable duo – a fresh outlook and renewed determination. Embedded into this work is an unruffled, contemplative space to just observe – to let our thoughts coast, glide, and settle – to momentarily suspend the busy mind.