Sarah Kernohan

Lives and works in Kitchener, ON, Canada

Artist statement

I create work that draws on objects and images gathered in various landscapes, translating these into large pieces that provide a glimpse into the larger geological world around us. I am guided by the sometimes poetic language that describes geological processes and landscapes in flux, both materially and perceptually: shorelines that shift due to tidal processes, the retreat of glaciers, ice that shifts on top of waves, and snowfields that change in response to wind and weather conditions. My photo-based works assemble fragments of close-up images of rocky surfaces that convey information about where these rocks originate and how they may have been found previously: in small pieces at the bottom of cliffs, as pebbles washed up on shores far from their original home. I use the close-up as a means of pulling myself into the surfaces of these objects, where I find other landscape phenomena. I use the collage process to build these out, looking for ways to extend a fragment to draw one piece to another, creating an image of a whole that can be perpetually built upon over time. My drawings are extended explorations of these themes. These are often large-scale pieces that meditate on landscape processes, employing drawing methods and materials that relate to the processes I am alluding to. I use particulate materials, such as graphite, pigment, and chalk, to create atmospheric drawings, employing strategies that veil, sift, drag, melt, lap, and flow. All of these explorations...

Artwork