Umbrella Projects presents artist Marcia Huyer’s Breathing Room, an immersive sculpture installed in a Sackville home.
Struts Gallery and the Owens Art Gallery are pleased to present Breathing Room, an immersive installation by Corner Brook, Newfoundland-based artist Marcia Huyer. Breathing Room consists of a series of inflatable structures that have been installed at 8 Squire Street, an empty home currently under construction. Audiences are encouraged to explore and move through the space, on view, July 2nd to 4th (see below for viewing times). This project is the latest work to be realized in the Umbrella Projects series, a partnership between the Owens and Struts Gallery presenting off-site, in-print, online, and onscreen programming during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Built specifically for the architectural elements of 8 Squire Street, the inflatables respond, inhabit, and explore the spatial elements of the home. Viewers are confronted physically, bringing into question the real and imagined boundaries that we negotiate—domestic/industrial, interior/exterior, organic/unnatural—contorting and challenging our perceptions of space. According to Huyer, “There is an ever-present tension found in the inflated form between the constant pressure of the air within and the material that holds it back that has intrigued me for many years.”
Location: 8 Squire Street, Sackville, NB The installation is open to public at the following viewing times:
Friday, July 2, 6 to 9pm Saturday, July 3, 12 to 5pm Sunday, July 4, 12 to 4pm
Capacity is limited to 4 people at a time and strict public safety guidelines will be enforced. Masks are required; names and phone numbers will be collected for contact tracing. Venue Access: This venue is not wheelchair accessible. The entrance into the house is located on the first floor, with a single step. The exit is on the lower level and is down a flight of stairs. There are no washrooms available on site. We sincerely apologize for these barriers.
ARTIST BIO
Marcia Huyer is a sculpture installation-based artist living and working in Corner Brook, NL. She studied at the University of Victoria and the Ontario College of Art and Design (now OCADU). Her work has been shown in several festivals and public institutions across Canada. In the summer of 2013, she and Robert Hengeveld participated in the Struts residency program and enjoyed the Friday BBQ's and community swims at Silver Lake. The last place Marcia traveled to pre-pandemic was to Sackville, for the HandMade Assembly, 2019. Sackville will be the first place Marcia travels to since the pandemic. Later this summer Marcia will be participating with the Bonavista Biennale 2021, in Duntara NL.
Umbrella Projects is a year-long collaboration between Owens Art Gallery and Struts, designed to assist artists during COVID to realize projects outside of the confines of the gallery space.
A huge thank you to the entire Buckler family for their generous assistance and for making this project possible.