https://www.sarahsteeves.com/work daily 0.75 2026-09-19 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1746742444418-TF86242DRT4T8EWLJTVT/IMG_1243.jpg Selected Works Temporary Against the Hills Copper, Monofilament, Rock Specimen, 60 × 54 × 32 cm https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1788819455294-YTCHE6LLJ43W6KC45NAJ/Sarah+Steeves+2026+RTP+004.jpg Selected Works MC`26`CE 2026, Copper, Salt Crystals, 12 x 20 x 16 cm Photo credit: Rachel Topham Photography https://www.sarahsteeves.com/new-index-1 daily 0.75 2026-09-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1779320100350-0WLXHUZ0O1CBGKQ07UY9/Screen+Shot+2026-05-20+at+3.22.59+PM.png Special Projects - Corazón del Espantapájaros / Heart of the Scarecrow Costumes developed in collaboration with the artist Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa for his multi-layered performance Corazón del Espantapájaros at PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in Vancouver, Canada. Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa, Corazón del espantapájaros (Heart of the Scarecrow). Installation view, Audain Gallery, 2019. Photo: Blaine Campbell. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1778367090178-8ZM53WI6YIKO7EDPONK9/moneyshot.jpg Special Projects - A Spark Between Two Silences Created while in residence at Similkameen Artist Residency, 2026. Copper, iron. 48 x 76 x 46 cm Standing at the base of the Cascade Mountains in the Similkameen Valley, one can’t help but notice the untamed and beautiful chaos of the monumental rock formations and the colours that seem to ooze from them, the rocks’ symbiosis with plant and animal life. Rich coppery and white as snow and dark green lichen plant themselves into the rock in psychedelic patterns; the silvery pale green of the sage bush creates an endless sea; bighorn sheep trot their way up the mountains until they become one with the geology, indiscernible to the human eye. In this landscape, a presence echoes up the mountains and through the valley and reverberates deep below the earth’s crust. Copper is everywhere, its origins reaching back nearly 200 million years, when ancient volcanic forces moved hot, mineral-rich fluids through the earth, leaving traces of copper embedded in the mountains and buried deep beneath the valley floor. Giant, copper-bearing rocks dot the valley landscape, as if discarded by angry glaciers grown tired of carrying their weight across the continent. Among these glacial deposits nestled in the sagebrush appears the sculpture, A Spark Between Two Silences. Its iron frame forms an unexpected yet familiar shape, mirroring the geologic forms scattered throughout the valley, while copper-wrapped surfaces catch the sun, revealing themselves among the silver-green vegetation. Taking its name from a line by the Chilean poet Vicente Huidobro, the sculpture exists in a suspended state between the spark of ancient volcanic activity that once spread shimmering copper throughout the landscape and the slow weathering and erosion it will inevitably endure. Catching the sun as it passes over the valley, the copper-wrapped surfaces glint among the monumentality of the mountains like a lingering trace of those fiery geological origins. Exposed to the elements, the work enters the same rhythms of the earth as the rocks that surround it, quietly awaiting the gradual transformations that shape all forms in this landscape. Photo credit: images 1–2 by @marionlandry https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1789156501873-G9UJIAIDGJLQHYJO74FW/Screenshot+2026-09-11+at+12.53.04%E2%80%AFPM.png Special Projects - Edge of a Glacier Edge of a Glacier, 2026 76 × 50 × 40 cm Copper wire, iron, phosphorescent paint Constructed using rope-weaving techniques, the sculpture Edge of a Glacier reflects artist Sarah Steeves’ ongoing fascination with textiles and geology. Since 2024, Steeves’ practice has centred on handweaving copper wire on the loom to create small geologically inspired forms, translating textile techniques into sculptural metal works. This year, that inquiry has moved off the loom and outdoors, expanding into large-scale forms made to live in the landscape. Created specifically for the landscape at Coffin Farm, Edge of a Glacier takes inspiration from glacial erratics, masses of rock that were picked up by glaciers during the last Ice Age, then dropped somewhere far from their home, as if the glaciers had grown weary of their extra load. On their very slow move, these rocks crossed landscapes now divided by borders, and Edge of a Glacier considers the underlying continuity of this land, reflecting critically on the symbolism of the national border in our current political moment. Steeves was inspired by the words of scholar and poet Gloria Anzaldúa, who wrote extensively about the instability of the borders we live by: “But the skin of the earth is seamless. The sea cannot be fenced; El mar does not stop at borders.” When the ice sheet that covered the artist’s home in British Columbia, Canada (some 20,000 years ago) finally reached Washington State, it began to melt, letting go of the last of its glacial erratics. These geologic entities crossed a political border that did not yet exist, evidence of a landscape that was once continuous. https://www.sarahsteeves.com/new-index daily 1.0 2026-10-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/6812b4e9f10260751bbc15aa/1790539055766-H4QWBNGDZJXWC1MN5GE7/SS_Absence_Mineral+003.jpg Exhibitions - Your Absence is Mineral Your Absence Is Mineral is a solo exhibition bringing together a body of work by artist Sarah Steeves at Vernon Public Art Gallery. From Sept - Oct 2026 Curated by Victoria Verge Steeves’s work rings with a subtle but persistent truth: humans are not separate from the Earth; we are intrinsically linked to it. The exhibition includes nine sculptures, a video work, and a durational installation. Steeves weaves intricate pieces of copper into textile-like forms, which are then immersed in a saline mixture and left to crystallize. These mineral interventions—specifically salt crystallization—reproduce processes of geological weathering that elicit transformation. By mirroring the ways natural forces break down rock, the work draws a parallel to how humans experience psychological weathering through accumulated grief and trauma. At the heart of the exhibition is an exploration of grief, loss, and transformation. For Steeves, absence is not a void but a shifting into another form. The exhibition title takes inspiration from Jón Kalman Stefánsson’s novel Your Absence Is Darkness, a saga about an isolated rural community in Iceland. Steeves gently pushes back against the notion of absence as darkness, instead proposing something more materially grounded: mineral. Her title reflects a belief that we are so deeply interconnected with the Earth’s systems that nothing truly disappears, but instead transforms. Titles also play an important role throughout Steeves’s practice. Using geological naming conventions often employed by researchers to catalogue discoveries, Steeves creates coded references to her own personal world and artistic influences. These subtle naming systems act as quiet gestures toward memory, place, and lineage. Integral to the exhibition is an evolving installation in which viewers can observe the salt crystallization process unfold over the course of the exhibition. The sculptures become simultaneous representations of erosion and creation, inviting viewers to witness slow, almost imperceptible change over time. Through this durational process, Your Absence Is Mineral offers a contemplative space to consider transformation, interconnectedness, and the cyclical nature of life. The work suggests that creation and erosion are not opposites, but part of the same continuous process of becoming. Thank you to the Canada Council for the Arts for making this exhibition possible. Photo credit: Rachel Topham https://www.sarahsteeves.com/about daily 0.75 2026-09-14 https://www.sarahsteeves.com/contact daily 0.75 2026-05-24