About the Exhibition

Wave Interference – exhibition essay by Keri Macleod

UK artist Rachel Duckhouse exhibits her print-based artwork in Wave Interference, a study of Calgary’s water infrastructure and the effects of the recent flooding. This body of work is the continuation of Duckhouse’s exploration of patterning and system map­ping–those familiar with her practice will recognize the delicate pen and ink drawings that highlight her skillful hand. Her work is dynamic- aesthetically it draws parallels to early Op Art in the way she represents rhythm and reverberation. Also present throughout the exhibition is an emotive quality that bridges the abstract with the personal.

For the past year, Duckhouse has served as the Artist in Residence for Watershed+, a partnership between the city of Calgary’s Public Art Program and its Parks and Utilities departments. Stationed at Ralph Klein Park, she consulted with civic engineers in developing a visual language to represent the city’s water systems. She also had the opportunity to conduct field research and survey the trajectory of water flow throughout the municipal system.

Her recent exhibition Only Flow at TRUCK Contemporary Art imagined Calgary’s waterways as if they were architectural elements in their own right- eliminating existing structures such as the riverbed and bridges from the picture plane allowing for the flowing water to take precedence.

Shortly after Only Flow opened, disaster struck and Calgary’s overflowing rivers affected thousands of residents. Wave Interfer­ ence responds to the flood and serves as a means of continuing a dialogue that unites Calgarians around the subject of our water systems. “On the one hand I felt I had a responsibility to respond to the flood” Duckhouse says, citing her position as Artist in Residence for the city’s water services, “though on the other hand it is a very sensitive issue.”

Duckhouse’s understanding and empathy for those affected by the flood is present in many facets of the exhibition: the large-scale silkscreen depicting an apartment Aoor plan inundated with rushing water pays homage to residents whose homes were wiped out. This particular print was the result of several conversations with a couple who lived in an apartment that had been flooded.

Duckhouse asked each of them to hypothesize and visualize how the floodwater flowed into their apartment. The violence of the rushing water is startling- waves surge into the apartment and reverberate along adjacent walls creating a chaotic pattern of layered ripples. 

Alongside this print is an audio piece that serves both as a didactic accompaniment and additional layer of sensory stimulation. The piece features the personal accounts of the aforementioned couple describing what transpired in their apartment. The voices gain momentum, overlap and then recoil, mimicking the swell of floodwater. The juxtaposition of objectively surveyed material and personal accounts of the disaster serve as cultural documents and a platform on which to continue the dialogue.

Attention is also brought to the research component of Duck­ house’s residency with the digital reproduction of her notebook, giving the viewer a rare opportunity to peer inside the process of artistic production. A trusty companion to many artists, the ubiquitous Moleskine notebook is easily recognizable- its pages are replicated on a poster-sized print outlining the progression of her research. The print features hand-scrawled notes, sketches and observations.

Rachel Duckhouse is in the final stages of her residency with Wa­tershed+, currently hosted by Telus Spark. Upon her return to the UK, she hopes to enroll in future research-based residencies and continue working in response to environmental elements. 

 Watershed+ Artist Residency Program at Ralph Klein Park is a part­nership between the City of Calgary’s Public Art Program, Utilities & Environmental Protection

About the Artist

Rachel Duckhouse is a UK-based visual artist specialising in abstract, geometric etchings and screenprints as well as highly detailed, labour intensive pen and ink drawings. Her practice is both research based and process led and is often characterised by repeated geometric motifs and arrangements of multi-layered, sculptural forms in 20. The complex patterns and systems in nature, architecture and human behaviour form the basis of much of her work either directly as a focus of research, or indirectly in the processes of production on a more intuitive level.

Rachel explores Calgary’s watershed as a complex, multi-layered system, and her research has focused on the living, moving network of water Aow patterns underpinning every local landscape.

Rachel has exhibited in galleries in Canada, the USA and the UK, including the Royal Academy in London and the National Gallery in Edinburgh, and her drawings, screenprints and etchings have been acquired by the British Museum in London.