The materials Kassandra Walters works with are as important as the finished works. Every aspect of her art is a moment to discover an embedded layer of meaning. She transforms these unconventional mediums until they are barely recognizable; stretching the limits of observation and leaving a breadcrumb trail to the work's resolution. As she holds space for her lineage, past, present and future, her body becomes an integral part of the work. Her labour mirrors their labour, yielding my blood, snot and tears. Walters began working with tissues to separate the idea of production from the valuation of one's self by looking at what it is possible to produce when not engaged with capitalism. Her body is producing even when she physically is unable to make anything, working with this idea of productivity through seemingly worthless tasks. Taking an object that would normally be considered trash and repurposing it, by casing it in porcelain, turning the tissues, weighted with sickness or sadness, into light, fragile, delicate objects. Learning to see these apparently trivial productions as things of value grants us time to listen to our bodies, allow ourselves to take things slow, to be intentional with the way we move through the world, and give ourselves permission to heal from the everyday.
Kassandra Walters is a multidisciplinary artist born in Tkaronto/Toronto and currently based in Tiohtià:ke/Montreal. She combines her love of materials, mostly non traditional, into rich, layered, ephemeral works. Her current work references her identity as a second-generation Canadian and experiences of living with mental illness. In her newest body of work, through the use of various treatments for sugar, she is able to connect to and hold space for the millions of people affected by the colonization of the Caribbean. Heavily inspired by the everyday, she is constantly experimenting with new materials and techniques to fulfill her ideas conceptually.
