ARTIST STATEMENT
Architecture, urban landscape and personal history intersect in my art practice. I explore theidea of home in my paintings and the built environment in the sculptures that I construct. Ineach series, I endeavor to consider the spaces we inhabit and how we move through themphysically and emotionally.In my paintings, wooden supports in the shape of a house are beguilingly simple but the subjectof home is complex. What does it mean to have a home? A prison or a refuge? A place ofbelonging or no more than a suitcase; it is a physical space but also an emotional landscapeinextricably bound with memory. Domestic objects – a chair, a lamp, a coffee cup, stand in ascharacters in these abstracted interiors that combine color and fragments of text to create openended narratives.My sculptural work then expands from personal spaces into the urban/industrial landscape.Using found/salvaged materials like wood, cardboard and plastic I respond to their materiality tobuild structures and installations that reflect the rapid expansion of cities and their resultingcast-offs. Left in piles by the roadside or in dumpsters they call out to be turned into somethingmore. Reimagined, they retain their history while becoming something entirely different.
Doctor Appointment, acrylic on board, 25 x 31 x 2cm, 2019
Late Night, acrylic on board, 21 x 32 x 2cm, 2019
I Could Live There (Left) Lucky (Right) 4×8 ft. Each 2019 City of Victoria Commission
Paper Tigers (Left) All Flies, Flies and Goes (Right) 4×8 ft each 2019 City of Victoria Commission
Creep In A Tee-Shirt, cardboard, acrylic paint, paper mache and thread, 40 x 120 x 38 cm, 2019
Force Majeure, plastic with tape, tempera paint on wall (installation view), size variable, 2019
Government Street, charcoal on cardboard, 182 x 91 cm
Return Ticket, acrylic, spray paint and collage on board, 25 x 45 x 2cm, 2019
BIOGRAPHY
Fern Long is a contemporary artist living and working in Victoria, BC. She is a member of BOXCARSIX artist collective and a Diploma of Fine Art graduate from Vancouver Island School of Art (June 2018). Architecture, urban landscape and personal history intersect in Fern’s art practice. Moving between painting, drawing and sculpture she builds structures that explore the spaces we inhabit and how we move thru them both physically and emotionally.
Follow Fern on Instagram and her Website
Thank you for viewing this digital exhibition by Fern Long. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did. Please stay tuned for new exhibitions coming soon.
©Fern Long. Courtesy of the artist.
Slide Room Gallery 
Fern: Will you allow me to make Late Night mine?