Rivers & Logs debuted at Mayberry Fine Art in Toronto.
(an excerpt from the artist's statement)
In this recent body of work, Rivers & Logs, Hildebrand explores themes defining the history and future of her adopted region of BC and Canada at large, including the privatization of water and waterways. Despite managing the world's largest freshwater resource, our government does not have a plan to protect water or our human right to access it. In July of this year Canada abstained from a United Nations General Assembly resolution which overwhelmingly declared the human right to “safe and clean drinking water and sanitation.” In BC, a province with historically reliable and secure electricity, rivers are licensed to private companies, exposing communities, species and environment to unprecedented risk. In our own town of Powell River, we are fighting to keep a public wastewater system.
Water themes have crossed here with another concept Hildebrand has been exploring in paint - the quilt.
Lush with storytelling potential and visual stimuli, quilting offers a connection to local histories and the role women have played in activism, art and society.
The creation of a quilt can build a community, warm the body, tell the tale of a family.
And the beauty!
The matching of opposing textiles, each with their own history, creating stories within stories within stories, the possibilities are infinite.