28 October 2022 – 03 February 2023
theDock: Centre for Social Impact (300-722 Cormorant St, Victoria)
M-F 8:30am-5:00pm
The rose is often used to represent love in exclusive, romantic perfection. I choose a broken, disintegrating rose to speak for a universal, compassionate approach to the experience of loss and trauma. I present portraits of roses from my neighbourhood made with resist materials such as eraser, wax and china pencil which persevere despite many dense layers of ink. These roses stand in as portraits for the many people known, and unknown, who believe in the reality of love, courage and justice. The emergence of marginalized voices from history and our own time allows us to access stories of resilience and resistance. My work is an act of remembrance for those who have suffered violence, illness, prejudice, oppression and poverty yet have stories of hope and endurance to tell.
Biography
Cornelia van Voorst is a visual artist and theopoetic practitioner with a studio practice within the traditional lands of the lək̓ʷəŋən (Lekwungen) peoples- the Esquimalt and Songhees Nations (Victoria, BC, Canada)
In a world shut down by pandemic, her recent work honours stories of endurance and compassion in the face of both personal and collective adversity. Living with a complex form of PTSD influences van Voorst’s engagement with intergenerational trauma. In all of her work, allusive, lyrical images hover between literal and metaphorical depiction and negotiate the space between lived experience and dominant narrative. Her work is an empathetic integration of the personal with the historical that resonates within our contemporary context.
