Sam Kinsley (Canadian, b. 1982) is an interdisciplinary artist of settler ancestry currently living and learning on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Kinsley uses attentive repetition of chosen actions to investigate the implications of the habits and tendencies that her body takes up. The practice of repetition and re-acting allows her openings to question what is considered “natural” or “given,” and opportunities to re-orient. Kinsley is cofounder of an experimental podcast series everydaystollen.She has participated in artist residencies and has exhibited in galleries across Canada. For Kinsley’s online project, visit https://belkin.ubc.ca/sam-kinsley/
I walk down to the beach,
The tide, neither low nor high. It rains. The beach is quiet.
I pick up a stick, it is almost long enough to use as a walking stick but not quite. As I walk up the stairs I drag the stick along the railing feeling the vibrations from the movement of the stick’s edge over the rail’s surface as I move up the stairs. I continue using it to feel surface through vibration all the way to the studio.
27 Sticks
Text 17
Fingers wrap around the circumference easily.
Fills the space between the hand alongside the body and the ground, too short to support. No thicker than two fingers. An angled tip with unnatural ridges.
The surface papery, dry, like flaking skin. Some bits loosen with even a cautious touch.
Halfway down the surface hardens, smooths, narrows.
The tip small round and flat, feels manufactured no wider than a pencil.
I can feel no evidence of tools used. It smells of ash.
Sam Kinsley (Canadian, b. 1982) is an interdisciplinary artist of settler ancestry currently living and learning on the unceded territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. Kinsley uses attentive repetition of chosen actions to investigate the implications of the habits and tendencies that her body takes up. The practice of repetition and re-acting allows her openings to question what is considered “natural” or “given,” and opportunities to re-orient. Kinsley is cofounder of an experimental podcast series everydaystollen.She has participated in artist residencies and has exhibited in galleries across Canada. For Kinsley’s online project, visit https://belkin.ubc.ca/sam-kinsley/