YVONNE SHORTT
Artist Statement
For years Shortt has been having an internal conversation with herself regarding frameworks of abundance and scarcity. Shortt looks at ingredients of scarcity, often mimicked in many different industries, such as competition, gatekeeping, hierarchy, and exclusivity. Shortt recognizes the framework of scarcity rooted and replicated in education, art, jobs, for profit and not-for-profit organizations, and society at large. In each of these industries, the scarcity framework entrance point is often the application, which sets the terms of power outside oneself and reinforces scarcity in a toxic win/lose experience. Using natural materials Shortt weaves narratives of investigation and questioning in the gallery space she inhabits.
To explore frameworks of abundance, Shortt thinks about intentionality and freedom as well as sustainability from a financial, emotional, and environmental perspective. She’s co-created frameworks like Be the Museum, Be The Archivist, and Create Your Own Annuity which gives power back to the individual. These frameworks are expounded upon in Yvonne’s practice. Because creating can be extractive and deplete vital resources in nature a multi-prong approach to sustainability from a materials perspective is integral in her practice. Shortt collaborates with beavers using their discarded sticks to create pieces for play, conversation, and energy shifts. She has harvested pigment from rock and dirt to paint coverings for her portable dwelling space which she carries on her back across the land for communing and internal discussion of less extractive methodologies within her practice. Shortt gives back to the land she borrows from in the form of filtered water sculptures that treat toxic waterways. She’s stitched thoughts about her investigations onto canvas scraps to prompt internal and external conversation.
Shortt focuses on changing herself with the belief that everyone is connected so when she changes, so do others.
Past Solo Exhibitions Shedding My Toxic Core, 2024
Past Group Exhibitions please come flying, 2022 Reviewed and Sold: What’s Next?