By Louise Rachlis
Energetic Ottawa artist Jennifer Cook “Will Work for Food” - and that’s just one of her many artistic endeavours in the community.
Jennifer Cook is an Ottawa-Gatineau-based artist, designer and educator with a diverse art practice in a wide range of media.
She creates sculpture, both traditional and digital photography, painting, drawing, assemblage, print-making, silk-screening, paper-making, sewing, knitting, weaving, public intervention, movement and performance.
She also designs and sews clothing out of forgotten fabrics under her re-claimed fashion label.
Jennifer describes the themes of her practice as “community, connection, love, self-sufficiency, sustainability, recycling, reclamation, cycles, flow of energy and respect for the environment.”
The choice and usage of materials is important in her work, often reclaiming or transforming waste into art or using natural materials. “More and more I am drawn to installation, intervention and public space. I am interested in the power of art and the inclusion of community in art making.”
She believes that art is “hope.” “Art is essential to creating healthy and happy individuals, communities and societies… The more art we have, the more health, happiness, individuality, diversity, inspiration, joy, love, connection, and dreaming we will have on this planet.”
Last winter, Jennifer’s proposal to create a site-specific edible garden was selected by the Ottawa Art Gallery and a jury of six representatives from their community partner organizations.
While designing aesthetically-patterned garden beds, the ever-ebullient 27-year-old said she aimed “to explore ideas of food security and urban agriculture, to engage the community in creating a creative and accessible space where food is produced, and to use this space as a catalyst for self-sufficiency, sustainability, community, art and creative expression.”
Will Work for Food is described as a community art collaboration exploring small scale urban agriculture. It focuses on food issues of the community surrounding the Ottawa Art Gallery, such as the complexities of food production, access to food, and its cultural significance.
Last spring, community partners and others moved 28 cubic yards of soil onto the grounds of Arts Court. Together they created garden sites for growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and edible flowers.
Jennifer has also encouraged creative expression in the garden through collaborative community art workshops in which the public has produced a colourful banner, funky garden signage and in the fall paper will be made from the vegetables growing in the garden.
The artist with the long dark hair and imaginative clothing cycles everywhere, including to the Hintonburg Community Centre where for the past two years she has been working as the coordinator for The Art Studio for Artists Living with Mental Illness.
Since graduating from the Fine Arts program at the University of Ottawa, she has also been teaching with the Ottawa School of Art Outreach Program, offering barrier free art programming to marginalized and at-risk populations.
In September, Jennifer is starting a new job as the new BeadWorks Coordinator at Operation Come Home. OCH provides programs and support “to prevent homeless youth from becoming homeless adults.”
The social enterprise BeadWorks represents one of the six pillars of programming offered to youth at OCH to provide opportunities for at risk and homeless youth to become healthy, happy, contributing members of our community.
Since April 2008, youth between 16 and 30, who are clients of Operation Come Home, have been crafting beaded and assembled jewelry in the BeadWorks studio. When youth sell a piece they have made, they receive 75 per cent of the sale, with the other 25 per cent going back into the BeadWorks program. Since its creation over 100 youth, both male and female, have participated in BeadWorks which provides all of the materials, tools and instruction to them.
The BeadWorks studio is situated in Operation Come Home at 150 Gloucester Street at Bank. The studio and store front is open for jewelry creation and shopping from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Thursday.
Jennifer’s “Will Work for Food” project culminates this fall with a public feast, and the project is always looking for more community participation. Once a week the project hosts a community work bee with Jennifer Cook on site.
The resulting produce is being harvested for use by the Ottawa Mission and the general community. Everyone is welcome to participate in the cultivation, harvesting and eating of food on the site.
The Ottawa Art Gallery is located at Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue in Ottawa.
For more information on “Will Work for Food”, view www.ottawaartgallery.ca/news/2011/willwork/index-en.php
http://willworkforfood-oag.tumblr.com/ or find them on Facebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment