Sylvia Rack

My practice concentrates on the art of noticing. I am deeply interested in the unexpected convergences between contemporary research into soil regeneration, the methodology of radical softness, and the esoteric alchemical notion of the materia prima: the primitive formless base of all matter similar to chaos. Each challenges our preconceptions around hierarchy, referencing indirect relationships we don’t fully comprehend; the potential to restore life in soil comes down to dead stuff and invisible things; organic matter and microbes. The relationship is more important than the thing itself.

I explore these invisible relationships through a combination of traditional and experimental techniques, combining practices developed by artists over the course of centuries with unpredictable chemical reactions, and chaotic interventions of my six year old daughter. I like to dwell in the spaces in-between chaos and representation, a revolutionary moment which encounters a crack in the world of hardened boundaries.

Sylvia Rack is an emerging artist working between Montreal and Boynton, Quebec. She studied Animation at Sheridan College before working professionally in video games for nearly a decade in Toronto and Montreal. Rack left her career in animaton to live in Italy and study traditional oil painting techniques in Florence. Shortly after returning, Rack became involved in several parent-led activist groups. It was at a seminar hosted by the Butterfly Rangers, she was introduced to the microcosm of specialized plant/insect relationships, which set the stage for a lifelong obsession. In autumn 2023 she began an MFA at Concordia University.

Instagram @sylviarackartist