Folio is a section bridging the printed page with unexpected media, hosted by a different artist or curator each issue.
Stills from Caress, by Kasia Sosnowski, 2019 3:33 min, looping video w/ sound Videographer: Brad Goruk
Two arms stretch out from behind a large clay body. They reach around the form, barely able to reach at its widest part. Initially the touch is gentle, hands gliding on the wet surface.
Slowly the touch becomes more activated. Gliding shifts to scratching then becomes clawing.
Originally from Calgary, AB, Kasia Sosnowski worked out of nearby Lethbridge beginning in 2007, completing a BFA with honours from the University of Lethbridge in 2014. She moved to Banff in 2014, where she worked at The Banff Centre as a Preparatorial Practicum at the Walter Phillips Gallery. She subsequently began exploring ceramics at the Banff Centre’s Late Fall BAiR program. Sosnowski recently completed a residency at Medalta in the historic Clay District of Medicine Hat, AB. She now lives and works in Lethbridge once again.
Evidence of the embrace is mapped out through the carvings and marks left in the clay by an encounter with another body. But as the two hands continue to grasp and paw, new grooves cover and bury older ones, now left hidden beneath.
Caress is a video that emphasizes the generative relationship of bodies — the arms, disembodied, and the ever-malleable clay form act on each other through gestures, echoing the intimacy of school-yard taunts and escalating into a visceral wet embrace.