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Culture Days will return September 20 – October 13, 2024.

  • Soap Meets Poop, Soap Sculpture created by Maria Gomez Umana. Image: Petra Halkes
  • Soap Poop near the Ottawa River. Photo by Beth Shepherd
  • Maria Gomez Umana create soap poop

An Unexpected Intersection: Soap Meets Poop

In-person

Kids Nature & outdoors Science & technology Visual arts
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Date and time

Location

Front yard at Nectar, New Edinburgh Community and Arts Centre

255 MacKay Street

(Old) Ottawa, ON

Directions: It's right beside MacKay United Church.

Access

Free, and accepts optional pay-what-you-may donations for admission.

Offered in Spanish, Dutch, English, and French.

Wheelchair accessible.

About

An Unexpected Intersection: Soap Meets Poop

Visual artist Maria Gomez Umana has created hand soap that looks an awful lot like… poop! She will show you her collection, invite you to wash your hands with it, and to take home a sample.

The soap-poop proved surprisingly inspirational to other artists; Beth Shepherd took some soap-poop and photographed it at different locations along Ottawa's urban water system. She will show and discuss her series of images. Rene Price brings in an artwork that he really wants to see in a hardware store’s plumbing department.

All three artists and their helpers invite you to start a serious or not so serious discussion about poop and the effects it has (for good and for bad) on Climate Change. For this discussion, we recreated a living room on the lawn. You are welcome to sit down around the coffee table with your hosts.

This is an outside event to be held on Saturday September 26, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM. Rain date: Saturday October 3, 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Covid-19 safety measures:

no more than 3 people at the 2 art tables, including the hosts.

Max 5 people around the coffee table.

M. distances will be marked.

Masks required for guests and hosts.

Hand sanitizer available at each station.

No access to public toilets.

Tables and other surfaces will be wiped frequently.

Handwashing basins will be cleaned after each use.

Pre-registration recommended.

Bios of artists:

Maria Gomez Umana (BFA, MFA) is a visual artist and elementary teacher in Montessori schools. In her art practice she has explored healing herself and her environment using found elements and mixed media. www.mariagomezumana.com

Beth Shepherd: With degrees in biology, psychology and art history, eco artist Beth Shepherd explores the interrelationships between urban ecology, climate change and COVID-19. bethshepherd.ca.

Rene Price is an Idea Guy/Inventor, Quirky Mockartist, Scribbler, Rascal, Non-Smoking Cyber Luddite and Grand Avocationist. www.reneprice.ca

Links

Organizer

The Unstuck Collective

The Unstuck Collective aims to organize art events that address Climate Change and/or any of the intersecting societal issues that affect it. They seek to facilitate work by Ottawa artists that is collaborative, interventionist, community-based and process-based. Although the Collective plans to work with and without the City’s institutions, it is not stuck on professionalism, hierarchy, or the traditional format of art exhibitions, which may stand in the way of art’s potential to fight Climate Change.

Contact

Petra Halkes

p.halkes@sympatico.ca