In her drawings and installations, Sam Kinsley creates systems of inscription to represent the numbers that are used—by the state, by banks, by civic institutions, and so on—to identify or describe her. These systems, which govern the repetition of simple actions over a long period of time, allow her to understand the symbolic power and authority that the numbers possess, as she transfers them from the place they usually occupy in her life to the space on a page or even in a room. Kinsley assigns herself a precise task to be carried out in a given time period—a laborious drawing process during which the marks she makes accumulate to create abstract forms of varying density that recall organic or cartographic motifs.

At articule, Kinsley will fill the entire gallery space witha huge, cascading drawing made with a pin, entitled Mass. In this work, she has made as many perforations in paper as there are cents in her personal debt; her multiple interventions, the movement of the paper under the pin, and the empty space combine to create a vast, textured mass. Mass is the latest in a series of alternative self-portraits, each of which explores the numerical character of Kinsley’s social identity.  

 

Sam Kinsley is a installation artist currently based out of Halifax.  She received her Fine Arts Degree  from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, in 2010, and has participated in exhibitions on both the East and West coast of Canada. Sam Kinsley is presently collaborating with fellow Halifax artist Daina Tavenier on the General - a roaming installation creating public places in private spaces.

Exhibitions  

Participating Artists: Sam Kinsley (Nova Scotia)
Curator(s):
Credits: Image : Sam Kinsley, Masse, 2011