Charles Campbell
Spine Sketch 1 (Evernia prunastri)
About the Artwork
As the words “I Can’t Breathe” became a refrain during racial injustice protests, Charles Campbell’s life-affirming work has focused on the essence of Black breath. Campbell traces parallels between structures of the body, forms found in nature, and infinite geometries such as spirals and fractals. Breath is reimagined as cyclical and tessellating, moving around the earth and across time, passing from ancestor to descendent. The shapes in Spine Sketch 1 (Evernia prunastri) are abstracted from branching lichens, symbiotic organisms in local rainforests that detoxify air, making it safer to breathe. Linking together in sinuous form, they evoke images of Damballa, a benevolent and sacred serpent from African diasporic religions such as Obeah and Haitian Voodoo, whose presence spans past and future. The work’s title notes its resemblance to a backbone, strengthening these themes of lived, embodied, and intergenerational connection.
Spine Sketch 1 (Evernia prunastri)
2022
Museum board, wire, aluminum composite panel
Unique
15" x 37" x 11.5"
Estimate: $6,500
Courtesy the artist and Wil Aballe Art Projects, Vancouver
About Charles Campbell
Charles Campbell (b. 1970, Kingston, Jamaica) is a multidisciplinary artist, writer and curator who lives and works on lək̓ʷəŋən territory, Victoria, BC. His work investigates non-linear concepts of time and the future imaginaries possible in the wake of colonisation using painting, performance, sculpture, and installation. His work has been exhibited widely and internationally including at the Perez Art Museum Miami, Havana Biennial, the Brooklyn Museum, the Santo Domingo Biennial and Alice Yard in Port of Spain. His work was featured in The Polygon’s 2021 exhibition Interior Infinite, and is currently the subject of a touring solo exhibition An Ocean to Livity, opening this fall at Nanaimo Art Gallery. Campbell is the recipient of the 2022 VIVA Award from the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation and the 2020 City of Victoria Creative Builder Award. He holds an MA in Fine Art from Goldsmith College and a BFA from Concordia University.
Photo: Lia Crowe
