Main Gallery @173 James Street North, Hamilton Ontario
March 3 to April 7
Reception: March 10, 7 to 10pm
Subjects is a multimedia installation exploring the relation between statistics and the body. In this solo exhibition, Nichol Marsch presents a thousand handmade human forms that are repeatedly labelled, categorized, and statisticized. Made from fabric, paper, enamel, beads, stickers, plaster, ink pigments, spray foam, synthetic hair, yarn, french fries and other found objects, each subject is numbered and accompanied by a scannable barcode allowing access to their applied statistical information. Hundreds of Canadian and global statistics are applied to these subjects through techniques of stitching, slashing, paint submersion and object-affixation and statistical categories range from the general such as gender, age, weight, to specific chronic illnesses, projected cancer diagnosis, the percentages of people who overpack for vacation or have a lucky pair of underwear.
Shaped by the artist’s experience of searching online for information about their body, and subsequently, reassessing their own positionality and identity, Subjects questions how rabbit holes of data, blogs, and anecdotes on the internet can shape one’s sense of self and embodiment.
The artist acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Nichol Marsch (she/they) is a Métis visual artist from rural Manitoba/Treaty 1 Territory. Working primarily in multimedia sculptural installation, her practice is self-reflective and explores concepts of social constructs, determinants of identity, place and invariability. Through abstraction and with a focus on process and materials, her work concerns lived experiences, observations of living within social rules and dealing with superfluous, habitual or mundane acts to facilitate opportunities for intro- and extrospection of the unstated. Marsch’s installations often combine traditional craft with contemporary art practices, and has been showcased in the recent Manitoba Craft Council’s group exhibition Lens Reflex (2020). She produced a site-specific piece for LandMarks2017, a Canada 150 Partners in Art national juried group exhibition at The Forks National Historic Site in Winnipeg Manitoba. After obtaining a Bachelor of Fine Arts Honors from the University of Manitoba in 2018, she completed a year-long Preparatorial Practicum at the Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity’s Walter Phillips Gallery. As a participant in the Mentoring Artists for Women’s Arts 2019-2020 Foundation Mentorship Program, the 2020-2021 Creative Manitoba Individual Youth Mentorship, and with support from the Canada Council for the Arts, Marsch completed the large scale installation titled Subjects, which was featured in a solo exhibition at La Maison des artistes Studio gallery in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
