Living Landscape - 2009 Dressed open-air “set” located in Farmer Ashmore Reesor's Field
Heather Rigby is an Interdisciplinary artist working in the interstices between environment, culture and art. Her work connects the geography of the land with the collective imagination of the local and extended communities by means of site-specific installations and social media.
My art practice investigates the mysteries of perception where the body as vessel shares an awareness of the inter-dependency with all life. The intention of my work suggests that we may come to know the natural world’s boundaries between the artificial and the organic, urban and the natural landscapes arise/merge and magnify beyond the notion of an interior and an exterior reality. The work asks the viewer to experience anew the dynamics of their own perception of space in a reciprocal dialogue of empathy with the art object, where potentially a lived experience of form and space merge as one.
Based in Claremont, Ontario, Heather gained her Master’s degree in Visual Art with further research in Cultural/Environmental Studies, at York University. Her more unconventional explorations include studies at Dai Towku Ji Monastery in Kyoto, Japan and investigations into eastern philosophies in Sikhim and Tibet. Her current art making explores the power of symbol through land art (including large-scale field drawings), videography and installation. Her teaching career has ranged from Colleges and Universities in Ontario and Nunavut. She has exhibited her work in Canada and Italy.
