Planet of Weeds
Garrett Lockhart, Nikki Woolsey, Suzanna Zak
July 12 - August 11, 2019
@
Crutch
13 Mansfield Avenue Unit G
Toronto, Ontario, M6J 2A9
Hope is a duty from which paleontologists are exempt. Their job is to take the long view, the cold and stony view, of triumphs and catastrophes in the history of life. They study teeth, tree trunks, leaves, pollen, and other biological relics, and from it they attempt to discern the lost secrets of time, the big patterns of stasis and change, the trends of innovation and adaptation and refinement and decline that have blown and evaporated, like sea winds among ancient creatures in ancient ecosystems. Although life is their subject, death and burial supply all their data. This gives to paleontologists a certain distance, a perspective beyond the reach of anxiety over outcomes of the struggles they chronicle. If “hope is the thing with feathers,” as Emily Dickinson said, then it's good to remember that feathers don't generally fossilize well.1
Garrett Lockhart (b. 1994, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada) received his Bachelor of Arts in Communication Studies and Computation Arts at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Recent exhibitions include “envoi” at Sibling, Toronto; “Bending Towards the Sun” at YYZ Artists' Outlet, Toronto; and an upcoming solo exhibition at PS311, Ottawa. He is also a co-director of Calaboose, an independent project space located in a converted carriage house in Montreal. Recent curatorial projects include “Red Sky at Morning” at Interstate Projects, NYC, “After the rain,” Montreal; and Bruno Sport Bar Biennale, Montreal. Lockhart currently lives in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Nikki Woolsey (b. 1983, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) graduated from OCAD University in 2008. Her sculptures consider the perceived significance and categorization of objects. Unravelling these understandings, her materials are put through a process of intuitive reconfiguration and deliberate fabrication. Woolsey has been included in exhibitions at Cooper Cole (Daily Luge,) the Power Plant (More Than Two), Mercer Union (Push and Pull), and Pari Nadimi Gallery (Baleful), Toronto, Canada. As a frequent contributor to the touring art event Doored (2012-2017), Woolsey has shown sculpture in Los Angeles, New York City, and Rotterdam. In 2010, she collaborated with art duo Life of a Craphead at a residency and exhibition at Hotel Maria Kapel in Hoorn, Netherlands. Woolsey lives and works in Toronto, Canada.
Suzanna “Suzie” Zak (b. 1990, Moscow, Russia) received her MFA from the Yale School of Art in Sculpture in 2019 and her BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art in Photography in 2012. Her practices straddles between the mediums of sculpture and photography while oscillating between nature and culture. Recent exhibitions include D.R.M. (Defanging Recovery Manual) at In Lieu in Los Angeles. She is the 2019 teaching fellow for the Yale Prison Education Initiative. Zak is also an avid mushroom hunter and rock climber.
