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Damien Worth, Artist – Prince Edward Island

Damien Worth graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2011. His work aims to explore the spaces that exist between worlds. He is interested in the thresholds occurring between wild and cultivated sites, reality and fiction, certainty and uncertainty. He has participated in various solo and group exhibitions in national and international venues, and has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards. His work is held in various private and public collections including the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, the University of New Brunswick Art Centre, The Rooms provincial art bank, the Prince Edward Island art bank, and the Global Affairs art collection for embassies and consulate offices. He is one of twelve Epekwitk/PEI-based artists included in the group exhibition Desire Paths, organized by This Town is Small and opening at the Hilda Woolnough Gallery on November 14. These are a few of his favourite things…

  1. Phenology

The changing of seasons and the activities that are joined with them are spaces that provide stability and structure. The yearly repetition of acts such as stacking wood, garden preparation, and foraging/preserving provide a meditative practice that mirrors my processes of art making.

  1. Dungeons & Dragons

I’ve been playing this game for nearly thirty years. The actions of communal storytelling, improvisation, and call/response merge with chance to provide an arena where the act of letting go of narrative control can be crucial. The fantasy genre can be witnessed as an escape from reality, but I prefer to frame it as akin to a prison break (Dungeon dash). I continue to search for a way to merge role-playing with my art practice

  1. Houseplants

I want to turn our living room into a jungle. I want a creeping host of leaves, stalks, flowers, and spines to encroach to the point that our personal space is threatened. Sometimes I like to imagine them whispering to each other in a silent hidden language, plotting their next moves, or gossiping about our quirks. I like the idea of creating a unique microcosm, building an interior world that has its own specific quality of air.

  1. House

We live in a one-room schoolhouse from 1884. It’s an ongoing renovation process with no end in sight. Each step in envisioning, designing, and building feels as if we’re resuscitating a space that was destined to decay. It’s been a beast of a journey, but I’m happy we’re in the belly of it.

  1. Over there

Remote marshy islands, distant cliffs, rocky shoals, that hedgerow at the end of the expansive field, deeper through the forest scrub. How do we get there? What could we find along the way? What lies beyond ‘there’? Has anyone set foot there before? Sometimes imagination and mystery can hold as much weight as knowing.

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