
2018, Detail from underneath. 1350 components. , Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
Patrons were invited to view this piece from underneath. Detail of cascading starry forms. Photo credit: Karl Griffiths Fulton

2018, 1350 components. 8ft diameter sphere, Media: Porcelain, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
This piece was created for the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in conjunction with presenting at the Fusion Ceramics conference in Ontario, Canada. The filament makes the components slightly undulate with the air movement in the room, creating a buoyancy and animacy to the piece.

2019, 2 sculptures. 6ft tall, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Relief
These sculptures were commissioned from Louis Vuitton in Paris for their Boston MA store, permanent installation. They were created to reference an exhibition of 11 original towers in 2005, titled 'Stand', created in residence at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture for exhibition at the Odd Gallery in Canada's north.

2017, 4 installations. 450 components, Media: Porcelain, Stoneware, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Pit / Saggar fired, Reduction, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
This exhibition consists of 4 installations/assemblages: 60 hanging black stoneware pipes, 350 hand-built stones piled on the floor, 3 large hand-built floor sculptures (crater glazed and sand blasted, and saggar fired), and a wall piece that is 163 components. The exhibition references discernment and contemplative practise. Photo credit: Alan MacNaulty

2019, 11 components. Approx 3ft tall each, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Pit / Saggar fired, Surface: Unglazed
This piece references the gestural expression of dancers responding to the push and pull of the palpable space between each other to direct the next physical movement, by expressively responding to and ultimately building an architecture of space through movement. Acquired by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria permanent collection. Photo credit: Cathie Ferguson

2021, 4 installations. 4000 components, Media: Porcelain, Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, High-fire, Oxidation, Reduction, Surface: Glazed, Image transfer / Decals / Screenprint, Unglazed
This exhibition consists of 4 installations: 'Drop' - 750 components, high fired porcelain with glass dust, hung with mircrofilament. 5'x5'x10' 'Written on the Body' - 47 components, wall hung, 20ft length, porcelain with photo transfer 'Grounded' - 1800 components filling a 7' x 8' room, 2' deep, oxidation and reduction fired, glazed and unglazed 'Still Point' - 1100 components. Porcelain, glass dust, filament. 7'x7'x3.5' Photo credit: Cathie Ferguson

2021, 4 installations, 4000 components, Media: Porcelain, Stoneware, Firing Process: High-fire, Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Image transfer / Decals / Screenprint, Unglazed
This exhibition consists of 4 installations: 'Drop' - 750 components, high fired porcelain with glass dust, hung with mircrofilament. 5'x5'x10' 'Written on the Body' - 47 components, wall hung, 20ft length, porcelain with photo transfer 'Grounded' - 1800 components filling a 7' x 8' room, 2' deep, oxidation and reduction fired, glazed and unglazed 'Still Point' - 1100 components. Porcelain, glass dust, filament. 7'x7'x3.5' Photo credit: Cathie Ferguson

2022, 400 components, Media: Stoneware, Firing Process: Oxidation, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
The title “Kiss the Joy as it Flies”, from William Blake’s poetry, aptly reminds us to notice the string of fleeting moments in life within the ultimate nature of impermanence. This flock of 500 geometric abstracted birds plays with the balance within us of light and shadow, freedom and rigidity, movement and stillness. Photo credit: Cathie Ferguson

2022, 600+ components. 3 installations, Media: Porcelain, Stoneware, Firing Process: Electric, Surface: Glazed, Unglazed
This exhibition shot includes 3 installations: 'Kiss the Joy as it Flies': 400 geometric abstracted birds in flight across the brick wall (handbill and oxidation fired) 'The Skin We're In': 9 abstracted figurative sculptures (thrown and crater glazed, 3ft tall each) 'A Speck of Dust' : starry porcelain orbs installed as a 9’ buoyant shimmering circle. Photo credit: Cathie Ferguson
Artist Statement
My recent work explores concepts of space and spaciousness, within the field of contemplative practise. Drawing on research from the disciplines of philosophy, psychology and neuroscience, as well as personal experience in the deep backcountry, I use abstraction to touch on relationships between forms that describe spaciousness regarding certain dyads such as: freedom/constraint, seen/unseen, stillness/motion, emptiness/fullness. Through highlighting the negative spaces and amplifying the relationships of individual parts to the larger whole (connected through shimmering buoyant filament), the installations become distinctive geographies that allow for imaginative and sometimes actual wanderings. These spaces are suggestive of generative pause, of spaces that don’t necessarily need to be filled, either temporally or physically.
My aesthetic approach to form and surface is rooted in my personal politics and my dedication to materiality. My intention is to preserve the natural qualities of clay in the finished piece: its raw tactility, visceral nature, and organic characteristics. Concurrently, my feminist values serve as an ethical framework through which imperfection is celebrated as beauty. By asserting a sense of intentional unadornment in my work, the handmade marks, raw surfaces and natural flaws are purposefully preserved.
Framing this aesthetic is a more theoretical investigation of how this earth-based material embodies an animacy akin to living matter, at an atomic and physical level. This malleable creative medium that can be imprinted, polished and scraped, torn paper-thin, or layered thick and gritty, that crystalizes in the kiln, has a fascinating ability to embody an energy that is resonant, calming, and grounding. I work with multiplicity because it allows me to create architectures that encourage embodied responses, while abstraction invites a quality of inquisitiveness. I seek to create installation environments that permeate this alchemy and animacy for both artist and viewer.
Bio
Canadian based artist Samantha Dickie received her BA in Gender Studies and Indigenous Studies, followed by her Diploma in Craft and Design in Ceramics. She has attended artist residencies in France, China, Yukon, and Alberta. Her minimalist abstract sculpture and architecturally scaled, multi- component installations have been featured in solo and group public gallery exhibitions across Canada. She has been the recipient of national and provincial grants, local awards, and has been the subject of numerous articles and reviews, including Ceramics Monthly. Her work can be found in permanent public art collections, private commissions and corporate installations internationally; at select commercial galleries in Canada; and at her studio by appointment.