Artist in Residence uses maps to capture her life’s destination
by Alexandria Zine
Within the Higgins Art Gallery, artist Sian Robertson, seizes a residency to highlight the channels in life that truly remain over time. Robertson plans to embellish the Higgins Art Gallery with her work around the ingenious paths that maps create in the mind. Her work was visible in the “One World” exhibition within the Higgins Art Gallery’s expanse of art. The virtual congregation gazed at the art and interacted with the artist on Thursday November 12, between 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. This is yet another poignant contribution to the store of art that abounds in 4C’s art gallery. Other strings of art will be tethered throughout the rest of this academic year.
Ferrier, the Director of the Higgins Art Gallery and the curator of this event, is exhilarated by the prospect of sharing Robertson’s intriguing art with emerging artists at the college. “She is fantastic!”
Robertson, the nexus of the talk, is “…a self-taught artist, originally from Wales in the UK but I’ve lived on Cape Cod for over 20 years. I’ve been cutting and pasting (among many other creative pursuits) since I was a child but really only began to take this ‘hobby’ seriously about 8 years ago.” When it comes to sifting through the abundance that maps offer, she separates the gaudy parts to embrace the paths or sections that connect to her vision deeply.
“This is my first Artist in Residence,” said Robertson, “and it’s a fantastic experience for me. The show of my work in the Higgins Gallery covers about the last 6 years and “…it’s been really interesting for me to see my artistic evolution, not to mention the development of my skills with an X-acto knife.”
Robertson is also an instructor for a drawing class offered by Scott Anderson, a 4Cs professor in the department for the arts. “The students are also creating art with maps themselves,” said Robertson. “And I’ll be doing some short virtual presentations of my work for some of the other classes, including Vicky Tomayko’s.”
The “One World” exhibition is quite a prospective occurrence for the elongation of Robertson’s passion for maps and how they are inextricable with one’s trek to find purpose in this existence. “One of the most exciting aspects of the residency is being able to create a really large piece of work, much larger than I could ever do in my studio. I am making a giant map – 8 feet x 11.25 feet – called One World.” She aims to highlight the fact that every aspect of life, every experience is connected intensely to the others. “It will be one continuous road created from hundreds of roads, rivers, and country/state borders cut from dozens of different maps. “Roads connect us, and borders divide us, but by using them together in one piece I’m hoping to create a sense of bringing down the barriers between people.” Despite the disparities between various features and experiences within one’s mind and the minds of others, there is always an inconspicuous connection that many tragically pass over and over again. Robertson hopes that artists can render an artistic vision, a body of work that captures the former paths and those that are yet to be traversed.
To view more of Robertson’s art collection, one can visit the SianRobertsonArt.com, facebook.com/Sian.Robertson.100, Instagram.com/SianRobertsonArt. In addition to this captivating collection that has arrived at the Higgins Art Gallery, the former, extant, and future pieces in the gallery can serve as inspiration. If one wants to fortify their connection to 4C’s artistic selection, the one should visit https://www.capecod.edu/higgins/.
Categories: Arts & Entertainment, People