Artists in the Garden

ARTIST STATEMENTS

CHRISTINA BATTLE

delayed due to climate change
2026
Series of 14 quilted pillows (organic cotton dyed with plant material, cyanotypes, recycled fabric), video loop (from Notes to Self, 2016).

A summer wrought with wild, unpredictable storms, floods, and personal grief, delayed due to climate change, was made as a way to help mark the time. Waiting for flowers to bloom in order to prepare dyed fabric meant grappling with the reality of ‘delay,’ and all of the worry, sadness, and unknown that it can foster. delayed due to climate change centres joy and beauty as necessary through it all and considers the ways that slowness can offer a delicate reprieve. It’s been a tough summer, and the ordered, careful process of sewing soft and pillowy forms offered some relief. Really, I didn’t know what else to do.

the smell of summer
2026
Series of 50 scent sachets (organic cotton dyed with plant material and dried sweetgrass, gathered summer 2026).

An attempt to share the beautiful summery smell of sweetgrass with as many people as possible. Each sachet is meant as a reminder of summer 2026 to carry forward into the future.

JILL GLATT

Disseminate
2026
Series of 3 fabric sculptures (reclaimed cotton dyed with plant material)

Carry
2026
Reclaimed cotton dyed with plant material, dried marigold flowers

Vessels
2026
Organic cotton dyed with plant material

This series of new work centres radical imagination and physically manifests it as seeds and seed-storing vessels. Seeds are a world unto themselves—stored potential that can grow beautifully under the right conditions. Similarly, in the words of environmental justice technologist and writer Joycelyn Longdon, “we bring the worlds we imagine into being”. If our imagined futures are the seeds, then we are the vessels that hold these seeds until they are ready to be planted. The process of making these artworks has been slow, experimental, and rife with surprises, serving as a reminder to myself that working towards a better, livable future will be the same as well.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Christina Battle is an artist, curator, and writer based in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton), within the Aspen Parkland: the transition zone where prairie and forest meet. Her practice focuses on thinking deeply about the concept of disaster: its complexity, and the intricacies entwined within it. She looks to disaster as a series of intersecting processes including social, environmental, cultural, political, and economic, which are implicated not only in how disaster is caused but also in how it manifests, is responded to, and overcome. Battle’s practice prioritizes collaboration, experimentation, and failure; she has exhibited internationally in festivals and galleries as both artist and curator.

Jill Glatt is a Katarokwi/Kingston-based natural dyer, printmaker, and arts educator. Her artistic practice is informed by ecology, community, and sustainability. Glatt incorporates studies of native and non-native plants and their dyes to draw attention to social and environmental issues, often with a focus on the Katarokwi River. She centres collaboration with other artists and community members, and has most recently taken part in the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s HEAP (Humus Emergence Assemblage Platform) collaborative micro-residency.

THANKS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This exhibition is supported by the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund at Queen’s University.