Means of Abundance
Exhibition Catalogue
A catalogue co-written by Szturm on her co-curated graduation show, showcased throughout the Visual Arts building on the University of Ottawa campus (100 Laurier).
23/04/2024 - 28/04/2024
Means of Abundance was something we could all agree on: it is simultaneously a group of artists using their talents to show their worth and a critique of our individualist world. We approach creation without limits, sometimes hoping to find too much of a good thing. Abundance gathers our pasts and preserves our futures.
Means of Abundance is the acknowledgement that we are a lot. We have lots to research, think about, make, and say. We are sure you do, too.
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Chew on that.
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Enter into our building of old bones masked by new stone and here we welcome you to the lifecycle that is our graduation exhibition. This catalogue introduces you to Means of Abundance through each individual artist and their practice. This exhibition showcases masses of media and material arranged in every possible space within the 100 Laurier building. Some artists tackle the riches of human experience and sense, while others provide reason to pick apart abused fortunes. Ultimately, we hope to leave an abundance of inspiration behind as we seize the lot of opportunities that appear in front of us. Beyond our BFAs, we all seek to live and share our abundances with the world that meets us.
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- MOA catalog introduction
Planting Roses in January
Exhibition Catalogue
A catalogue co-written by Szturm on her co-curatorial project PRIJ, showcased in Gallery 115.
24/11/2023 - 07/12/2023
Inspired by Derek Jarman’s Modern Nature (1989), Planting Roses in January invites audiences to think about what the garden means to them. Jarman’s own garden was in a location where it should not have been possible for plants to grow, yet, against all odds, it flourished with flora and fauna of all kinds. When confronted with the fears and uncertainties surrounding a bleak future, which included his own ill health and the wellbeing of the planet, Jarman created the possibility of new futures.
Just as a garden can take many forms, Planting Roses in January brings together a diverse collection of artworks from Yekta Çetinkaya, Saanya Chopra, Sophie El-Assaad, Kai Holub, Sarah Hughes, Lou Koch, Susan June Robertson-Baranick, Marguerite Morin, Kalli Vath, and Annika Walsh.
The artists of this show, curated by the team of ART 4119, create their own garden and examine what it means to them in terms of personal identity and memory, whether that be through the lens of culture, Queer ecology, or eco-feminism. Like Jarman’s own garden, Planting Roses in January hopes to highlight the themes of the artists, bringing into existence a safe, communal space where audiences can reflect upon their own shared experiences, encouraging a profound bond between humans through nature.
With consideration of the ongoing eco-crises, the exhibition incorporates sustainable practices through the use of organic materials in gallery labels and inks. With an emphasis on personal identity and the never-ending possibilities of an environmental future filled with optimism, Planting Roses in January creates a space that asks its viewers: what does the garden mean to you?
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- PRIJ Walltext
Drain Magazine
An online arts journal where Szturm has had the pleasure to have some of her writing and curatorial explorations published. See more here.
--/01/2024
THE GARDEN – Vol. 19:2 (ed. by Celina Jeffery)
Planting Roses in January's Curatorial Project
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Celina Jeffery introduced the issue (here) as such:
"The Garden asks how expanded forms of gardening, whether that be gardening as research-creation, ‘feral’ art practice, fostering new communities, addressing mental health, and, or resistance to capital all interact with the ever-challenging effects of climate change. Here the ‘garden’ may be considered to engender the co-production of care, activating communities alike in their struggle to address the intersectional challenges of the present and build new futures. In what ways can gardening shed its Western bias and become the basis of creative engagement and evaluation to insert meaning into the experience of ‘living on a damaged planet’ (Tsing, 2017)? Can gardening become an agent of action, capable of negotiating the overwhelming sense of anxiety and paralysis that emerges from a confrontation with the collapse of planetary systems?
This issue of Drain is also inspired by the queer activist, filmmaker, and artist Derek Jarman and his concept of ‘modern nature’. Partly articulated in his garden project at Prospect Cottage in Dungeness, UK, a coastal site adjacent to a nuclear facility, ‘modern nature’ pushes boundaries and collaborative status between gardening as rewilding nature, time, and contamination (Jarman 1991; Laing 2020). Jarman’s concepts intersect with narratives of care, of bodies in despair, grief, but also of the possibilities of entangled futures. As such, we welcome a range of intersecting queer, feminist, post-colonial, and Indigenous perspectives to explore the ethical and ontological concerns raised through vibrant material and symbolic exchanges that operate at the site of the garden. Can such a collision of territories in which we confront the cultural separation of human and more-than-human dwellings allow for an exploration of the distorted and abused connections that have shaped our experiences of ‘modern nature’?"
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Here, an excerpt is shared from the catalog print essay and show text the PRIJ curatorial team and Szturm co-collaborated on with Shems Benmosbah, Elie Crighton, Chris Glabb, Isabelle Gray, Dana Mehdipour-Haidari, and Kelseigh Thompson. Exhibition by the class of ART 4119, taught by Professor Celina Jeffery. Images and documentation courtesy of Saanya Chopra.
Fulcrum Publications
Interviews Szturm has participated in with UOttawa's Fulcrum.
18/02/2023
Art and mental health: the ebb and flow of creativity by Grace Kim-Shin with UOttawa's Fulcrum
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In this short journal article, the artist was interviewed about an art sale event she participated in with the VASA group at UOttawa.
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Szturm was quoted regarding her participation:
"Szturm said that the student-organized sale '[is] a wonderful opportunity to sell art and just kind of get your work out there. It gives us the taste of organizing ourselves I suppose. As well as organizing our tables, talking with customers, making money where we can so we can feed it back into our art process – and meeting new people who might be interested in our progress and art down the line.'"
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Read it here.
20/10/2023
VASA Halloween Art and Bake Sale: A Hauntingly Brilliant Idea by Sydney Grenier with UOttawa's Fulcrum
In this short journal article the artist was interviewed about her relationship between art and mental health and how creativity waxes and wanes in the process of making amidst many preconceived notions about studying the arts; Szturm was quoted regarding her experience with creative burnout despite enthusiasm with her ideas while outlining the very real effort practicing Fine Arts takes on artists despite the rumours of mastery being set in some fictitious talent one wakes up with one day; she concluded a strong community of artists to converse and critique her work allows her evolution/improvement overall.
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Read it here.
Building Bridges
The Ottawa Design Club's zine Building Bridges 0007 was a welcome opportunity for Szturm to speak about her work.
For more check out their website and Instagram.
28/11/2024
Szturm takes Building Bridges inward.
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Ever hard on herself, even when looking forward it feels to her like she's made little progress. Although, when this artist glances back she acknowledges that she has come a long way. Erin Szturm has struggled with anxiety around growth, speaking for herself, and facing her fears of failure. Still, she has committed herself to learning and being who she is meant to be - even when its harder than she wishes.
Everyone wishes it could be simple after all.
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Read, skim, or pass her words by. Szturm attempts to articulate important facets of an image she rounded her undergrad off with: an artist who is stepping into the world with tattoos she never thought she would have, pimples she thought she would be embarrassed by, and a messiness she can't help but love. While she speaks from her own experiences, her image provides a crossroads to explore. There are these points of space in everyone's lives yearning for folks to be who they are no matter what. May everyone be able to find intersections where they are able to come into their own self and not be haunted by others' perceptions of how they "should" be.
C3 Zine
The "Create Change Collective's" zine Climate Connections that Szturm had the pleasure of writing for and publishing her artwork in.
For more check out their website and Instagram.
04-05/2023
Ottawa-based Create Change Collective's Climate Connection zine included works by various artists alongside Erin Szturm.
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The artist was pleased with her first print opportunity to showcase her work and attach it to such powerful community organizations tackling issues like climate change. Erin's Grasshopper at night (December 2022) with its writeup regarding climate anxieties and worldly issues.
