Bridget Catchpole

Bio

Bridget Catchpole is a multidisciplinary artist with a practice in contemporary jewellery and sculpture. She studied Fine Art (BFA 1998) at Concordia University, Montréal, Québec, Foundation Studies (1995) at Ontario College of Art and Design University, Toronto, Ontario, and Jewellery Art and Design (Dip 1993) at Vancouver Community College, Vancouver, British Columbia. Catchpole is a recipient of various Canada Council for the Arts grants to support her recent body of work, Stages of Healing (2021); a solo exhibition at Galerie Noel Guyomarc'h Montréal, Québec (2022); and an international artist residency in Athens, Greece (2023). In 2023, she received from BC Achievement Foundation an Applied Art + Design award.
 

Statement

My work is a material exploration of plastics' worth and waste, a reflection of anthropogenic climate change, and a representation of recovery and transformation. Since 2004, I have altered discarded plastics in my work to produce one-of-a-kind pieces and, more recently, to create sculptural "Wall Jewellery" forms. My studio is located on the K'omoks unceded traditional territory of Hornby Island, British Columbia.


Stages of Healing
Stages of Healing combines single use, found plastics and marine debris as material that parodies futuristic Anthropocene Era core samples. Sliced into discs of variable size, these artificial core samples define further meta-use in the creation of objects narrating a future of mass consumption and waste. I reveal a plastic's worth beyond its ubiquity to underscore a value system set in motion by imperialistic beliefs in resource extraction and the by-products generated from it, such as polymer plastics from its progenitor, fossil fuels. When slicing the core sample cylinders for Stages of Healing, the disc shapes often mimic geode-likeness and add an element of surprise when cut open. Moreover, the finishing steps are not unlike that of a lapidarist polishing a gem.
I could elucidate my work as "five and dime meets haute couture" — an ongoing challenge to transform the discarded in pursuit of a fine line where garish and alluring vacillate. By employing methods that embrace even the most degraded plastics, I honour the weakest among us and the fragility within us. The final outcome of the core sample discs lend themselves well to the appearance of clustered cellular forms, a reminder of our connection and dependency on the natural world — a fleeting and fragile existence compared to the geologic history of Earth.
 

CV      

On sale at