Amy Ash is reminding us that building connection sometimes requires leaving the studio behind
Working in the community with young people has opened up a whole new part of the Saint John artist's practice
There is a common myth about artists, that presents them as solitary individuals who need to be alone in their studios — far removed from others — to create great work. Saint John artist Amy Ash disagrees with this notion.
For Ash, working out in the community with others, and exploring a shared desire for connection and a sense of belonging, often lies at the heart of her artistic inquiries. She says, "I do spend solo time in my studio and I relish in that quiet, but the idea that the artist only draws from within and creates in complete isolation is not one I can subscribe to. Even when I'm in the studio by myself, my collaborative projects echo through my work."
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Ash is a multidisciplinary artist who uses painting, drawing and photography (particularly cyanotype, with which she says she's fallen in love) in her practice. She describes her studio time as experimental. Ash loves to use found objects, and works through her ideas by creating installation and assemblage works, curating exhibitions and facilitating group activities. She explains, "Originally, I chose to work collaboratively because I enjoyed teaching. More and more, though, I wanted to disrupt the hierarchy of the classroom and participate as amore engaged learner myself. Collaboration allows for this. It's also a surrender of control on the part of the artist, which is where I learn the most."
A Shared Geometry is a collaboration between Ash, George Street Middle School in Fredericton and Brilliant Labs. Ash describes the project as an interdisciplinary endeavour that uses geometry as a metaphor for the ways in which people make sense of the world and construct communities. She goes on, "The idea is that we kind of all fit together and to demonstrate the community — the personal cosmology but then the broader context."
The installation is a combination of found and personal imagery. In collaboration with Ash, the students each created a pentagon-shaped tile which, when assembled together, form a multi-media dodecahedron sculpture that is changeable and can be arranged in any configuration. In this video by filmmaker Matthew Brown with the help of Zoë Boyd, you meet Ash as she works in her studio in Saint John and spends time creating A Shared Geometry with the students.
When reflecting about the creative process, Ash concludes that it is just another way of processing the world around us. And there is immeasurable value in working with other people. She says, "I think that art is a really important tool to help us engage with the world around us, to make new and maybe unusual connections and to guide us to a better understanding of our communities, ourselves...to notice things that we might have otherwise walked by, and to discover."
Follow Amy Ash here.
Stream CBC Arts: Exhibitionists or catch it on CBC Television Friday nights at 11:30pm (12am NT) and Sundays at 3:30pm (4pm NT). Watch more videos here.
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