Notice Board

Art NOW speaker series presents: Shelby Charlesworth
Rhythm of Mourning
12 pm | October 6, 2023
University Recital Hall
Free admission, everyone welcome

As stated by writer Joan Didion, “Grief comes in waves”; it creeps back in, swallowing one whole without the slightest inkling that it’s about to hit and sweep out the ground from beneath us. Mourning can be derived from different experiences ranging from the death of a loved one, ended relationships, collective trauma, to unexpected life circumstances. Through loss, there is the coexistence of absence and presence; the ephemeral and fixed.

In this talk, Shelby Charlesworth addresses topics of loss, longing, grief, failure, empathy and mindfulness in art making. She shares her explorations in data visualization, interests in repetition and labour as gestures of care and memorialization, as well as the impact of lived experiences on social practice. 

Shelby Charlesworth is an interdisciplinary artist currently located in Mohkinstsis (Calgary) and Sikookotoki (Lethbridge). She received her MFA in Studio Art from the University of Connecticut in 2021 where she was Instructor of Record for Sculpture. She received her BFA from Alberta University of the Arts in 2017 and attended an exchange program at Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, Oregon in 2015. She worked as a studio assistant, sculptor and ceramicist in Los Angeles prior to returning to Alberta in December of 2022. She sits on the CARFAC Alberta Board, the Creative Aging Society Board, is on the Arts Acquisition and Program Committee for the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre and was recently a Visiting Artist at the National accessArts Centre. Her primary focus both through education and personal practice is community engagement and arts accessibility. She has exhibited both nationally and internationally.

Images courtesy of the artist:

1. Sleeping with Sorrow, Quilt with Appliqué, 40” x 40”, 2023, Documentation by Angeline Simon.
2. Absent Hand (detail of installation), 25000 press-cast porcelain buttons, 2020-23 (ongoing), Documentation by Rachel Dickson.
3. Absent Hand (Portrait), Archival Ink-Jet Print, 16” x 16”, 2020-23 (ongoing).