Surrounded/Surrounding by Tania Willard

Tania Willard, Surrounded/Surrounding, 2018, wood burning fire ring, laser etched cedar wood
logs from Secwépemc Territory, relief print on paper. Collection of the artist. Gifted to Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre, Kingston, 2019. (Photo: Paul Litherland)

Part of Soundings: An Exhibition in Five Parts

Tania Willard, Surrounded/Surrounding, 2018, wood burning fire ring, laser etched cedar wood
logs from Secwépemc Territory, relief print on paper. Collection of the artist. Gifted to Four Directions Aboriginal Student Centre, Kingston, 2019. (Photo: Paul Litherland)

Surrounded/Surrounding includes a wood-burning fire ring, etched leather stools, and a rendering of the artist’s wood pile in a graphic score. Inscribed on the wood pile are references to the breathing, beating labor that creates what a fire needs, as well as the trees, sun, sky, and ground that surround and create all else. The text on the stools shifts from embraced to embracing, from enclosed to enclosing—anticipating the transition from proposition to action. As the exhibition has traveled, the graphic score has been interpreted and performed in numerous ways, activating the installation and creating space for communal listening, community conversation, and radical rest.

Watch: Performances of Surrounded/Surrounding