The story of humanity is one of nomadism, dispersion, navigation, sporadic trajectories of beings and universal elements, all journeying to/from one space to another.  

In this recent series of textile works, multidisciplinary artist Rose Williams (Canada – Trinidad & Tobago) engages us on an intimate journey of care and healing through a restorative, life affirming, non-exploitative relationship with our natural environment. 

Every textile presents a story about place, a way to remember a landscape, the people within it and mark specific moments. In terraria.

Organic materials found, plants foraged patiently by hand, textiles repurposed: everything is transformed in a way that reminds us of the limitless capacity for regeneration, survival and growth for us human beings as in the natural world. 

From “the leaf there that good for you”, “to coconut water an’ a sea bath”, to green seasoning, to a runaway up Sans Souci side…Williams invites us to remember ways of healing and ways of surviving known to our forefathers, foremothers and knowledge systems of the Indigenous, Amerindian, African, East Indian, Asian, Aboriginal frameworks.

These civilisations all placed interconnectedness of the visible and invisible worlds, the synchronicity of the natural universe and a circular vision at the centre. The forests, the Bush, rivers, oceans and mountains were revered as sacred, spiritual, vital places of refuge. 

As a BIPOC woman, a survivor of medical malpractice, multiple medical interventions throughout her life, navigating her own hybridity in-between worlds: her island home Trinidad & Tobago and the city of Vancouver, Canada, Williams’ exhibition asks us a few questions: What does/ could the traumatic experience look like? the historical, physical, psychological, intergenerational?  How do we heal? How do we find our way back to ourselves?  To well-being, to safety, back home…

Rose L. Williams explains that there must be acceptance and coexistence; a perfect symbiosis of the shamanic, ritualistic and scientific within our ecosystems; a more organic, circular and life sustaining approach to how we treat, how we care and restore, as we endlessly seek to find our way back to ourselves and to each other.

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY

Rose L. Williams (Canada – Trinidad & Tobago)

Rose L. Williams (B. 1964) is a Canadian visual Artist and Photographer of Trinbagonian heritage who lives and works in Vancouver, Canada.

Williams explores, collects and photographs materials present in the natural and built environment. Gathered leaves, textiles and found elements are transformed into botanical prints, collages and mixed media paintings. Williams creates authentic organic dyes, which are then applied onto various textiles which all speak to the tangible and intangible psycho-geography of place. She embraces duality and hybridity as an essential part of her artmaking process and practice, creating between Trinidad & Tobago and Canada throughout her entire career. 

The convergences between healing and creativity; habitat conservation and botanical remedies; history, legacy and the transformation of trauma contextualize Williams’ art practice. Inspired throughout her career by the concepts of Magical Realism, Biophilia popularized by Dr. David Suzuki and environmental sustainability initiatives by Dr. Jane Goodall, Rose L. Williams observes and examines the intricacies of the natural and supernatural worlds, as well as the human-nature connections there present, across photography, painting, printmaking and textiles in her most recent work.

Rose earned her diploma in Painting and Printmaking at the University of the Fraser Valley and was a founding member of the Fraser Valley Graphic Guild. She is an alumna of the Langara College Expressive Arts Therapy program and Emily Carr University of Art & Design. 

Williams’ work has been included in numerous collections & exhibitions including the 2010 Winter Olympics Cultural Olympiad. 

In 2023, she participated in the Atlantic World Art Fair, represented by Calabar Art Gallery (New York). Selected exhibitions in Canada include: Longing & Belonging (Sidney & Gertrude Zack Gallery, BC, 2022), Displacement (Vancouver, 2019),  I Shall Be Happy (Pendulum, BC 2015) and From Dreamscape to Landscape (Solo Exhibition, Armstrong Gallery, Vancouver, 2008).

Infinite Wanderings (22 April to 10 May, 2024) is her first solo exhibition in Trinidad & Tobago.

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

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