The Arts Council of New Westminster presents:
“HighPower: Unfolding Beauty from Destruction”
by artists Kathleen Forsythe
May 4 – 29, 2016
Wednesday 1 – 8pm, Thursday – Sunday 1 – 5pm
Opening Reception: Wednesday May 4, 6 – 8pm
Artist Statement:
My work has sought to ask the question “Where does Newness come from?” and to follow the flowing movement of my own imagination between the world I encounter and the infinite interiority of my mind. My art work is all about unfolding the infinite interior and exploring the boundaries I encounter between my embodiment and the world I engage within and without the boundaries of my ‘self’.
HighPower: Unfolding Beauty from Destruction is a series of images from digital paintings printed on metal and acrylic. Inspired by the debris from explosions at the High Power Lab at BC Hydro’s R&D division in Surrey, I have deconstructed images and composed abstract paintings using an iPad. They are then printed on aluminum or acrylic. I felt that this series needed such a novel approach in terms of medium. Much of the debris that inspired the paintings is metal and plastic blown apart or melted. I have looked for its beauty and unfolded it using my metal and plastic iPad device.
In addition I am exploring the experience of what it means to generate art in a digital medium using my finger. The images that arise exhibit many of the same approaches as my mixed media paintings that employ acrylic paint, canvas, paper and other materials. However the actual physical materiality and experience of painting is very different. I am interested in the viewers’ experience of this emergent art medium
I am a published writer and poet as well as an artist. I began painting 10 years ago and would describe myself as an abstract expressionist. Although I have had a few private showings I do not have an extensive vitae of artistic work in the visual medium yet. My CV (below) shows a creative career encompassing many forms of exploration and expression.
CURRICULUM VITAE
Kathleen Forsythe
Doctor of Knowledge Architecture
SELECTED CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- Founding Executive Director, B.C. Knowledge Network 1980-86
- Co-Chair Intersectoral Dialogue, Earth Summit, Rio De Janeiro, 1992
- Prime Minister’s Award for Teaching Excellence, 2006
- Province of BC Recognition for Teaching Excellence, 2006
- Currently Executive Director of SelfDesign Learning Foundation
POETRY
- Inside Me Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1969
- The Hair Cage Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1972
- November-Dead-Time Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1974
- Time and Untime Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1977
- Phoenix Rising Fiddlehead Poetry Books, 1979
- The Vision of Fred: Conversations with Fred Cogswell on the Nature and Function of Poetry, with Fred Cogswell, Borealis Press Ltd. Ottawa, 2004.
TELEVISION SCRIPTS
TREASURE HUNTERS, with Dale Read, original script for television, 1984, produced by Knowledge Network, 1985
THE BLUE RAVEN, with Ted Harrison, adapted from the original story by Ted Harrison, 1985 produced by Knowledge Network, 1986
ART
Private Art Exhibit: Autogeography: Maps of the Infinite Interior, May-August, 2006, Full Bloom Flowers Gallery, Commercial Drive, Vancouver
Three paintings – Delta Art Society, Juried Show, 2013
One painting, Surrey Art Gallery, Juried Show, 2015
RELEVANT PUBLICATIONS
- Journeys to the Lands of New : Beyond Information – paper given to the American Society for Cybernetics, Virginia Beach, February, 1986 published as Working Paper no. 87-2 of the Center for Systems Research, University of Alberta, 1987
- Cathedrals in the Mind: The Architecture of Metaphor in Understanding Learning Paper given to the European Congress on Cybernetics and Systems Research, Vienna, April 1986.
- Best paper award for Symposium on Architecture, Humanity and Conceptualization, published in Cybernetics and General Systems, Robert Trappl, ed. Reidel Publishing Co. Amsterdam , 1986 re-published as Working Paper no. 87-2 of the Center for Systems Research, University of Alberta, Edmonton, 1987
- The Secret Garden: Learning as the Perception of Newness – Paper given to the Faculty of Education, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, January 1986. Published as Working Paper no. 87-2 of the Center for Systems Research, University of Alberta, l987.
- Towards an Epistemology of the Imagination Paper and workshop given to the American Society for Cybernetics, Santa Cruz, September, 1986
- Isophor: Poiesis of Experience Published as Working Paper no. 87-2 of the Center for Systems Research, University of Alberta, l987.
- Towards an Epistemology of Newness – paper given to the Problems of (Im)possible Worlds Conference, University of Amsterdam, April, 1987
- A Disposition for Wonder : The Art of Conceptualization in the Architecture of Being Human – Kathleen Forsythe, Candace Wedder, 9th European Conference on Cybernetics and General Systems, Vienna, 1988, published in Systems and Cybernetics 88, Robert Trappl, (ed.), Reidel Publishing, Dordrecht, 1988
- Metaphor and Metadomain: The Art and Science of Understanding- Preceeding Paper for the Conference Support, Society and Culture: Mutual Uses of Cybernetics and Science, University of Amsterdam, April, 1989
- The Pattern Connects: The Art of Madeline Von Foerster, The Poetry of Kathleen Forsythe – Presentation at the American Society for Cybernetics Conference, Asilomar, July 2012
Exhibition Preview
