Garden of Earthly Delights is an exhibition exploring meditative spaces and therapeutic objects. This is the first duo exhibition blending the practices of Mika Haykowksy and Alicia Proudfoot. Themes of wellness and illness, somatics and the body, and sculptural sound-making unify their practices. Their work comes together as a retreat space of sculpture and sonic installation. Earthy ceramic fountains, a modified harp, a marble sculpture, and leafy, soft-sculptural foliage fill the gallery—allowing guests to rest in a calming and curious atmosphere.
This exhibition provides solace, peace, and creativity for hospital guests, patients, and staff alike. The artists strive to make the gallery a welcoming and warm space that connects people within this healing building.
Alicia’s work pursues the gentle conviction of breath. No matter how imperceptibly still, breathing encourages us to move and speak. Her sound and sculptural components convey her experience of chronic asthma through pendulum-like waves of health that are both lighthearted and complex. Two marble statues stand like sentries, guarding the heart of the garden. Each is an absurd transformation of the respiratory system, revealing Alicia’s playful approach to living with illness. Y.O. – Y.O. renders alveoli into a pomegranate that is also a children’s commodity, giving a delicious shine to the polyp fruit. Broth is an enchanting chalice in which a twisting rubber chicken echoes the hollowness of the lung chamber. Visitors who choose to rest near these works can ponder the fictitious rituals they were designed for. On her augmented harp, Alicia shares a deeply personal and hauntingly beautiful sound, layering recorded soundscapes, digital components, and a new pair of carved legs inlaid with marble, elevating the instrument to perch like a preening creature in the garden.
Mika’s artistic practice investigates inner states of the body, like memories resting in our soft muscles, long forgotten. Her work touches on collective healing, pain and pleasure, and love addiction. The ceramic works presented in Garden of Earthly Delights are a culmination of experiments created during her residency at the Medalta Historic Clay District in Medicine Hat. Mika’s sculpting hands play with aggressive clay texturing methods and the fluidity of letting water find its own path—flow. Cycles of life, ecosystems, fertility, and extinction are central themes in her work. Fountains represent infinite cycles and bring subtle, soothing rhythms into the space. Incorporating running water into the gallery draws viewers into their senses—touch, sound, and sight. Some may be tempted to reach out and feel the water on their fingers. Water is healing and provides the grounded essence of the earth.
Garden of Earthly Delights interprets aspects of the natural world—its ecosystems and patterns of coexistence—through the rhythms of the body. Fountains represent abundance, hope, and life. Marble is a fierce dreamer, staunchly imaginative in its resilience, while the harp is ever-changing in sound, air, and breath. The foliage, commissioned from Debbie Radke, brings a tender embrace to those traversing life’s experiences with health.
Opening Reception - January 9, 7-9 p.m. Register for free:
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Mika Haykowsky holds an MFA (2019) from the Trondheim Academy of Art and a BFA (2016) from the University of Alberta. They live and work out of Amiskwaciwâskahikan / ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (Edmonton, AB). From their studio in central Edmonton, Mika launches into creative projects that circle around the body, the cosmos, dreamscapes, inter-species co-creation, eco-feminism and stewarding the land. Follow their artistic journey on instagram @kahousemi.
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Alicia Proudfoot is an interdisciplinary artist with a penchant to modify formal training in sculpture, printmaking, and performance through audience-engaging prompts. Experimentation is a valuable component of her creative research about humor’s role in a somatic archive on illness. Alicia received a BFA from the University of Alberta in 2016 and graduated with an MFA from NSCAD University in 2019. Her work thrives alongside community engagement. She has permanent public artwork at the Performing Arts Theatre in Hinton, AB, and other haptic commissions through New Music Edmonton, the Silver Skate Festival, and The Works in Edmonton. Alicia has exhibited across Canada with some international opportunities through an internship at Franconia Sculpture Park, MN, USA; a group exhibition with Hernandez Gallery in Milan, IT; and a recent residency with the Digital Stone Project in Gramolazzo, IT, where she learned to robotically carve marble sculptures.