Places Where They Sing

Amy Bowles

June 5 - July 4, 2020

Places Where They Sing , 2020
installation view

Places Where They Sing

A few years ago, I harvested some local dogwood and formed the red twigs into ringlets before drying them. I didn’t know at the time, but they would come to frame a series of sculpted bird heads I would create separately. Framed by the dogwood rings, my ceramic fledglings looked quite at home. The twigs appeared to me as though they were window frames from which my songbirds peered out, keeping watch. They had found a place to dwell. A place to gather, wound with twigs and leaves. A place that nevertheless afforded them the opportunity to scatter at a moment’s notice.

How do we create the fragile architecture of our homes? Where does one nest? A rooftop, or window sill beneath the sky? Perhaps a pointed archway, a gap in the belfry, a tree fork.

Home. Lucky to have a home. Happy to have a home. Even things that can fly need to be grounded.

This series of drawings and sculptures were made at home during this slower, quieter time we are collectively experiencing. With prolonged silence comes the increased volume of the bird’s song.

— Amy Bowles, May 17, 2020

Born in London and raised in the U.K., Bowles studied ceramics at the Cardiff Institute of Art and Design (1993-1996), followed by a move to Canada. Bowles lives and works in Toronto. Places Where They Sing is her ninth exhibition with the gallery.