Natalie Purschwitz
An array of objects, prolific and fecund, making new connections.
Natalie Purschwitz, “Transpirations” (detail), 2022
carbonized plant matter, ceramics, living plants, fossilized plants and plastic, dimensions variable (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
Overflow Chart, a solo show by Natalie Purschwitz at Vancouver’s Artspeak until July 16, is both serene and inflammatory. It’s as if a fire has just roared through the gallery: Hydration and carbonization form a pact. Seeing becomes an experience of bounty and surplus.
Purschwitz, born in the B.C. Interior and based in Vancouver on Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh homelands, works across media and practices: this exhibition spans ceramics and painting, drawing and papermaking, bio art and collaborations with generative artificial intelligence software. It rejects the questionable viability and negative environmental impacts of monoculture practice.
Natalie Purschwitz, “Overflow Chart,” 2022
installation view (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
Standing at the entrance, I’m struck by the jittering array of materials, arranged neatly in concentrated conglomerates. Purschwitz collects and gathers found materials, both natural and synthetic. She processes the flotsam, mediating resources with an attentive material regard. Then she arranges and composes, managing introductions and reactions.
For instance, in the multi-part Transpirations, two carbonized maple leaves recline across a milky-white plastic sleeve for crackers, now empty. In Drift, glimmering geodes parade as sugar lumps marshalled by stainless-steel tongs. Tea is served on a long wall-mounted table supported by a single graphite-covered branch, which at first glance resembles the sheen of charred wood. Multiple visits to the gallery revealed small transformations: on my most recent, the geodes were replaced by pumpkin seeds.
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Natalie Purschwitz, “Overflow Chart,” 2022
installation view (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
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Natalie Purschwitz, “Aura,” 2022
thread, track, dimensions variable (foreground) and “Manifold” (detail), 2022, recycled paper, rare earth magnets, dirt, rocks and ceramics, dimensions variable (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
One wall displays a flock of handmade paper sheets, bashful rainbows called Manifold, while Aura, a discrete fluorescent orange net, trembles in and out of view, transecting the paper sheets. By including it, Purschwitz references past research into grids, graphing and diagrammatic thinking.
My favourite moment is another section of Transpirations where two hydrangea petals, puny and scorched, rest on tangled synthetic-batting clouds. A gallant ceramic container stands a few inches away, flame-orange and bearing a bundle of carbonized stems. One of its two shadows grasps for the cushioned petals. What is the nature of this contact: confrontation or consensus? A few feet away, in the same work, a carbonized teasel frond – an invasive plant used in wool processing – luxuriates on another cloud bank. It seems weighty, like a mace.
Natalie Purschwitz, “Transpirations,” 2022
carbonized plant matter, ceramics, living plants, fossilized plants and plastic, dimensions variable (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
On one hand, materials offer conceptual matter. On the other, concepts materialize into worldly forms. Between these logics, Purschwitz finds an artful way forward. No material is presented just or only as it is. Everything is amassed and processed, typified, arranged and prototyped like something precious. Even living plants are chosen for their exceptional, supernatural charms.
In this way, sprouts become schema. Purschwitz views contact points between various objects in her work as vectors and sees each vector as a diagram. Once we recognize vectors or coagulations as the connective logic, her role as dreamy hermit or mad scientist snaps into focus. She is a synthesizer.
Natalie Purschwitz, "Unsupervised Learning (Weeds 1)," 2022
based on GAN (AI generated) imagery, natural ink washes (stinging nettle, coffee, chlorophyll, hibiscus, onion skin, red amaranth, turmeric root) and aquarelle pencils on cotton paper, 11" x 9" (courtesy Artspeak, photo by Dennis Ha)
That’s why her paintbrush is an ecosystem: we no longer need panic about poor visual yields, material droughts or eroded conceptual soil. I admire how Purschwitz so confidently plots an infinite field with this or that gesture, or with some unassuming yet ornate form. Overflow Chart is prolific and fecund. Purschwitz has succeeded in engineering a body of work that is plastic, synthetic and precious. ■
Natalie Purschwitz, Overflow Chart, at Artspeak in Vancouver from June 3 to July 16, 2022.
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Artspeak Gallery
233 Carrall Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6B 2J2
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