Heart Anchoring

Siân Quennell Torrington

February 2024

My body needs warmth, encouragement, forgiveness, acceptance. Maybe yours does too? When I’m able to create this softer kind of space, my heart can reach out. Making things helps the flow of energy – openness and acceptance. In the studio, I create a space to process the complexity of the times we live in. There are enough materials here, to express the difficulty in building connections between us, and the strength created by our imperfect, but repeated attempts.

What’s on the inside is soft and uncertain in places, in others it’s spiky, jolting, anxious, with clunky hips in pain. The news is dire, and it is tempting to retreat. Shocked and tired, we can feel like it’s ‘all too much’. And yet, life calls us outward. Our hearts, those glorious, messy things that want,  pull towards each other, desiring to be and experience all that we are. Even in the worst of times, making art shows me that life force is still pulsing determinedly; through colour and wonky lines, in sculptures that stick and wrap to each other, making me laugh with how they want to be bigger, closer, less afraid.

This show is made to share this space with you. The shadows, the courage, the massive heart, and the club that reaches out towards the street, full of energy and hope for change.

During ‘Heart anchoring’ at TheSeeHere, Siân also offers ‘How is Your Heart’, at The Performance Arcade on the Wellington Waterfront, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th Feb. The latter is an opportunity for audiences to show how their heart feels, through wearable sculptures and drawings. Meanwhile, this space holds the energy and practice of the studio. Stable and strong, it anchors the reaching out, offering balance.

Siân Quennell Torrington (she/her, Welsh, Tangata Tiriti, Pākehā)

Siân Quennell Torrington is an artist based in Naenae, Te Awa Kairangi ki Tai / Lower Hutt. Her art practice explores interconnectivity, relationships and the possibilities of alternative structures through materials. Torrington uses methods of experiment, play, risk and remaking to work in a process-based, relational way to a diverse range of materials. Energy and movement are key to her way of creating works and spaces that encourage connection.

She has exhibited nationally and internationally, been commissioned to make works for public art institutions, and has been awarded two international artist residencies. Torrington graduated with an MFA with distinction from Massey University in 2010.

Instagram: sian_quennell_torrington