Jackie Partridge

Jackie Partridge graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from Concordia University in the Fibres and Material Practices program in 2018. She is currently living and working in Huntsville, ON.

Artist Statement:
Coming from a small town and family heritage of farming, I have visually seen the land developing over time. I have seen and felt both the impacts of climate change and urbanization within my community.

As a mixed media artist, I am interested in expressing the rural landscape in an abstract and poetic way through drawings and installations. Through the transformation of often everyday items like jeans and maps; cutting, twisting, soaking, tearing become performed repeated actions to the objects. The process of the work becomes important in communicating the transformation of the land. I play with the relationship of what is fragile versus what is strong in material choices. The landscape remains delicate due to human impact but yet strong for the life growing on it. How can we better protect the land we care about?

Much of my current practice involves working outdoors as my studio and using paper to add or transform an area of a landscape that is close to me and I have spent time with. I see both the process of making the work and documenting the work in a photograph as the artwork.

Everyday objects in our lives are embedded with meaning and filled with memories of a past life left behind. What happens when the function is stripped away from something? Is it still the same object, or does it morph and hold a new identity? I wished time would slow down. When you linger, moments of unexpected can happen. I begin to notice things, to see changes even within a small patch of grass. When I’m outside I can stop and appreciate the small details and make comparisons to what was. I can hang onto moments through both photographs and memory.

My work embodies a sense of time and many projects imply a sense of infinity or are ongoing. Time relates to an infinite series of alterations in an environment that make up our daily existence. The landscape itself acts as an archive retaining all changes it faces.