Weight Lifted

Weight Lifted is an exhibition of sculptures and digital prints by Calgary artist Svea Ferguson.

Weight Lifted, an exhibition of sculptures and digital prints by Calgary artist Svea Ferguson (BFA '15, Drawing), contemplates material agency—the potential of material things to act upon and affect their environments without human intervention.

A sculptor, Ferguson’s identity as an artist is reciprocally defined in relation to her materials and the identity of the art object, which she comes to know through its material transformation and display. She aligns her practice with “truth to materials”—the Modernist idea that every material has its individual qualities and should be used in ways that are most appropriate to its essential character. Truth to materials assumes the artist is the creator and has more agency than his material. Ferguson’s approach to her materials does not assume human exceptionality. Rather she considers the artwork a co-production between herself and the objects, materials, and matter she works with.

Ferguson’s material choices reveal her empathy for the in/animate world and her desire for more ethical material relations. She works with mass-produced functional objects and synthetic surfaces, linoleum, vinyl, and rubber, that are often faux finished. She is interested in the physical properties and lived identities of these things—how they were made and by whom, their intended and actual use, and why they end up, as they most often do, languishing in resale and recycling bins.

SVEA FERGUSON, Knock off, 2024, PVC, REPLICA PLIA FOLDING CHAIR, STEEL, 66” x 20” x 8”