Made from a blend of cotton and synthetic thread combined with organic matter, Log Spirit explores memory, movement, and the migration of material through water and time. Presented as part of the Hard Twist exhibition at the Gladstone Hotel, the work engages textile as a language of narrative—where thread becomes a way of tracing history without words.
The sculpture began with a fallen log found on the shores of Lake Ontario in Port Dalhousie, where I lived. I traced the log three-dimensionally, wrapping and molding its surface with layers of thread until an outer shell emerged—almost like a second skin or the shed skin of a snake. This fragile structure became a hollow imprint, preserving the physical memory of the object while allowing the original form to disappear.
Through the repetitive gesture of wrapping, the work records time and movement. The threads trace memory much like the growth rings of a tree reveal the wisdom of age and survival. The sculpture holds the traces of migration—of wood shaped by water, of matter traveling through the lakes of Ontario, and of the shifting relationship between body, landscape, and belonging.
The work exists between preservation and loss, presence and absence. Like driftwood carried by water and reshaped by erosion, Log Spirit reflects transformation through displacement. It speaks to cycles of destruction and reconstruction, and to the quiet dialogue between the natural world and the human hand.
Temporarily finding a home on Canada’s east coast, the installation responds to the surrounding environment—from land to shoreline to ever-flowing water—offering a meditation on place, memory, and the invisible journeys held within material.