Here We Are, Waiting, by Katarina Holbrough

Katarina Holbrough's Website and Instagram

Based in Toronto, Canada

Here We Are, Waiting, Oil, Oil Pastel, and Vinyl on Canvas, 2024, 60" x 48"

In my practice, I grapple with ideas of identity, gender, and the ways we consume and occupy space. Here We Are, Waiting was my introduction to trans-corporeal theories —the fluidity between humans, objects, and the environment, which challenges the dualism and exceptionalism of body and self. This perspective views the human body as material, interwoven with non-human objects and beings.

The concept of reducing humans to material objects is particularly compelling to me, as someone with a rigid religious upbringing that emphasized the spiritual over the physical. As I delved deeper into this concept, I was drawn to the act of consumption and the unseen aspects of urban environments. In cities and developed areas, we often overlook how we are woven into the ecosystem —whether it's the plants growing on your steps, the ants that crawl through our walls, or the food on our plates. I wanted to confront my own unseeing and create images that highlight my daily corporeal interactions.

With this in mind, I began to notice the abundance of edible flora hidden throughout Toronto —from the mulberry trees lining my street and parks to the dandelions being pulled from lawns or the fiddleheads sprouting by a local stream. Though seemingly separate from us, each plant roots humans in the material world.

Here We Are, Waiting uses repetition, highly saturated colours, local edible flora, and exaggerated abstract forms to conceptualize how I, as a material being, interact with space and confront these rigid dichotomies.