ARTIST STATEMENT
A burned down candle, a line of salt, and a wreathe of bread: small actions to ensure the protection and care of a space. Part of my broader practice which explores the enmeshment of folk practices and witchcraft within contemporary life, this performance series embodied the role of women in preserving and reinventing domestic folk rituals that are centred around the care and protection of a home.
Drawing from various hearth goddesses (valued as fierce protectors, seeresses and often goddesses of the night) particularly the German Frau Holle/Perchta whom are part of my ancestral beliefs, these pieces return the wildness and magic to the vital tasks of hearth tending.
Fully disregarding white supremacist, fundamental Christian views of women within domestic work, this series reinvigorates the vital task of caring for a home as well as the value of choice, embodied through my sustained and loving performance undertaken of my own will as part of my chosen career as an artist.
Also an act of ancestral care, this performance took place in my Oma and Opa’s farm (now abandoned as part of urban migration and rural poverty), which sheltered them after their experiences as displaced persons following the Second World War. Emphasizing that care does not end at death, abandonment, or disuse of a property, these rituals restored care to a beloved yet no longer used space and affirms the spirit of place present within it.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Elke Richter is an artist based in Oskana, Treaty 4 Territory, Saskatchewan, Canada. She earned an MFA in Print Media from the University of Regina in 2017, and was the Director of the Art Gallery of Regina from 2019 – 2022. Maintaining her creative practice throughout her administrative leadership, she is now a full-time practicing artist with an emphasis on intuitive printmaking practices, painting, performance, site-specific installation, contemporary folk practices, papercutting, film, and sculpture with unconventional materials. Known as well for her collaborative work, she is a part of the Death Bloom Artist Collective, The Sounding Collective, and is the founding member of the Treaty 4 Morris Dancing Troupe. Her work has been shown across Canada and the United States, and will soon be shown in the UK at Field Systems Gallery. Elke is currently represented by Slate Gallery, in Regina, SK. She is a practicing witch of German and English ancestry.
© Elke Richter