Michele LeTourneau
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Mar 23/01) - A serendipitous Toronto visit with a college friend led Astrid Kruse to Sue Jeffries' office.
Jeffries, the curator of contemporary ceramics at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Arts, was working on collecting 20 Canadian pieces for a show called Earth Works. The show was to be included in the Canadian pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hannover, Germany.
Astrid Kruse |
"She saw (Icon for Survival) and said, 'Can I have that?'"
Jeffries wanted the piece immediately.
"In a way I was so proud because of the amount of talent in the show. There were people that are very established artists," says Kruse.
After Expo 2000 the Earth Works collection returned to the Gardiner to be exhibited.
Kruse will be doing an oral presentation while in Toronto.
"This is my first time ever to do a slide presentation and speak. I'm so nervous."
Kruse will talk about where she's from and then she'll explain the shapes she's been evolving over the years and how Icon for Survival came to be.
The piece evolved when Kruse was working on 30 sculptures for a new show,and the idea of "the evolution between a rounded piece to sculpture" came up.
"I took a block of clay and cut it into square pieces. I'm not sure if I was consciously thinking about creating what I created, but when I stacked the final pieces I wondered how the human element came in. There was an influence in there, from inside me to the outside."
Kruse, who has a day job, notes that it's every artist's dream to practice their art full time. Asked if she has high hopes about moving through the land of curators and galleries, she answers that she has no preconceived notion.
"I want to meet the other artists. I want to look and see. Maybe it will open some doors. But I'm new to this -- I just want to go with an open mind."
Meanwhile, Icon for Survival was snapped up by the concert master of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
"I was almost hoping to bring it back," says Kruse. "But I was so flattered that he wanted to buy it."
