GRACE NICKEL, "Devastatus Rememorari," May 15 to July 5, 2009, Gallery in the Park, Altona

Grace Nickel, "Devastatus Rememorari (detail)," 2008, porcelain, salt, (first installation, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax. Photo by Steve Farmer)

Grace Nickel, "Devastatus Rememorari (detail)," 2008, porcelain, salt, (first installation, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax. Photo by Steve Farmer)

Grace Nickel, "Devastatus Rememorari," 2008, porcelain, salt, (first installation, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax. Photo by Steve Farmer)

Grace Nickel, "Devastatus Rememorari (detail)," 2008, porcelain, salt, (first installation, Mary E. Black Gallery, Halifax. Photo by Steve Farmer)

Winnipeg-based artist Grace Nickel’s ceramic sculptures have always had an attention to detail that combines with organic forms. Her work has taken her across the world, receiving critical praise everywhere from Taiwan to Chicago to New Zealand. Her latest creation, Devastatus Rememorari, takes Nickel to a new level of creation filled with intersections of memory, beauty and destruction.

The works come from Nickel’s time in the Maritimes when she was studying for her Masters at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. They focus on the impact and destruction that Hurricane Juan had on the region in 2003. Originally shown in Halifax, Nickel’s artist’s statement for the work says “When I arrived in Halifax in 2006, I was profoundly moved by my first visit to Point Pleasant Park,” Nickel writes in the artist’s statement for the work, originally shown in Halifax. “Still, after numerous subsequent trips to the park, my awe at the magnitude of what took place there in September 2003 has not diminished. Point Pleasant Park provides stunning evidence of nature’s potential for destruction and its inherent power to heal itself.”

In early summer, Nickel installed the show at Gallery in the Park in Altona, Manitoba. Altona is Nickel’s home town, and the gallery is steeped in history – it’s a grand old former farmhouse that has been given a new life – much like the work in Devastatus Rememorari. The gallery space is dim with light touching gently on various sections of the works. Eight porcelain tree stumps lean precariously over a tear drop-shaped ground of thick white rock salt. Each tree is thick with detail and visual presence through the thoughtfully layered surfaces.

Nickel finds a balance between the clear destruction and the delicate nature of the trees. She brings together memory, and the impact that memory has on our external surroundings. External prompts on personal remembrance provide a major theme within the works, while the delicate porcelain beauty, and its destruction mesh together to leave viewers engaged in the sheer destructive force of nature.

Bone and skeletal references occur within the work, partially because of the shape of the structures and the colours of the clays and glazes. The trees’ eggshell colouring melds with the dark glaze – giving the work an aesthetic reminiscent of decay and death. Abstracted bone shapes travel up the stumps with a likeness of fossils, indicating the passing of time and fleeting life.

Nickel imprints text from newspapers, and articles that were written about the hurricane into the trees, and many of the words gently blur with the darkness of the glistening black glaze. Words that cut like headlines such as WORST, DEVASTATION and SLAMS pop out in the darkness to give reference to destruction - but Nickel lets the works themselves tell the story blurred by the words. ■

After its run in Altona, Devastatus Rememorarimoved to The University of Manitoba’s Gallery 1.1.1. July 13 to September 18.

PS: Worried you missed something? See previous Galleries West stories here or sign up for our free biweekly newsletter.