the time it takes to feel it (the weight of air)

a series of weavings: Tufted Rug (wool, felt), 31 hoop weaving pillows (wool, organic cotton hand dyed with fireweed collected fall 2024, recycled bedding material), six punch needle pillows (wool, organic cotton hand dyed with indigo, recycled bedding material).
Made for The Air of the Now and Gone curated by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E.K. Smith at Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG) January 26 – May 4, 2025.
Part of the larger series FORECAST, which considers the entanglement between environmental, social, political, and economic challenges facing the current moment, the time it takes to feel it (the weight of air) continues ongoing research and concern into the air quality felt and measured across Edmonton. This ongoing project considers the complicated ways in which the air impacts us: from the ways smells travel through it and the memories they evoke, to the physical impacts of pollutants through shared inhalation, to how the air serves as a metaphor for connection in a cultural sense.
the time it takes to feel it (the weight of air) is a new body of work translating air quality descriptions and measurements gathered across the summer of 2024. A summer marked by (now normal) extreme drought, excessive heat, and out-of-control wildfires, this work archives and monitors the measurable qualities of an extreme time while documenting the personal and reflective experience of witnessing and living through the days.
Across the spring and summer of 2024, I started a daily practice of documenting the smells, tastes, feels, and overall quality of the air in Edmonton along with scientific air quality measurements (Pm2.5, AQHI, NO, NO2, SO2, O3, CH4). A series of weavings were made in response, translations for a selection of the days monitored, each finished as a small stuffed “pillow,” alluding to the weight felt by the implications of bad air quality. While weavings take their aesthetic character from specific air quality readings of days described across the summer (elements like colour, yarn thickness, and type are associated with particular readings), this work aims to consider how artistic works might translate complex (and quite dire) realities into soft and beautiful visual forms.
The Days (translations):
May 11, 2024; May 12, 2024; May 17, 2024; May 18, 2024; May 21, 2024; June 2, 2024; June 15, 2024; June 20, 2024; June 23, 2024; June 27, 2024; July 1, 2024; July 3, 2024; July 7, 2024; July 10, 2024; July 19, 2024; July 20, 2024 (morning), July 20, 2024 (afternoon), July 21, 2024; July 22, 2024; July 23, 2024; July 24, 2024; July 25, 2024; August 4, 2024; August 6, 2024; August 7, 2024; August 11, 2024; August 14, 2024; August 15, 2024; August 16, 2024; August 19, 2024; August 20, 2024.
Thanks to Kirsty Robertson and Sarah EK Smith for commissioning this project and providing
research and material funds to help develop this new work.
Research instrumental to the development of the time it takes to feel it (the weight of air) was supported by the Canada Council for the Arts via a Research and Creation grant (2023). I’m grateful for their support.

Tufted rug imaged above was made during an artist residency at Fern’s School of Textile Craft and I’m so grateful for Fern’s shared knowledge and support.
List of Keywords + Colours (more or less):



Some of the data:




*note temperatures in the graph above were recorded at various times of day and don’t always reflect the high.

Keywords:


