It's been two years today since the passing of our friend Rebecca Robbins and I wanted to talk about her.
I met her in our last year at Emily Carr, we were all in Liz Magor's studio seminar. I remember so perfectly when she presented the work that she had worked on all year for grad. They were these incredibly beautiful, organic wreath-like ceramic objects with incredible green glazing, sea-like and unique, i have still never seen anything quite like them.
I wish I had a photo of them. We had group curated our room for graduation, and it was amazing. Sarah had a room with her beautiful film of Asja Lacis' feet walking at night in glass like slippers with sparkle dust. Leslie had a wall of c-prints, close-ups of the copper residue on the earth and rock at the Britannia Mines. Tara had her large format colour photos of houses and apartments with the vanishing point obscured by dint of seemingly impossible angles, with incredible reds and blues. Gretchen's beautiful and meditative floating cream-flocked flower rectangle, Jesse's large format (like 8'long) photo of a foot. I did a video installation in a closet. Rebecca's sculptures were mounted on the wall that you first saw upon entering the room. the last day of installation was pretty tense, nerves were frayed and i remember spending alot of time hiding in my closet. at one point there was a loud smash and the room was silenced. One of Rebecca's sculptures had fallen off the wall. I thought i was going to puke. Sarah was white as a ghost. Someone called Rebecca and twenty minutes later Len showed up with an extra piece in his knapsack, put it on the wall and it was all cool. No freak out, barely a blink. In retrospect, she was three months (?is that right) pregnant with Sol, so our graduation installation freakouts probably seemed pretty inconsequential. Freakout was not her way.
I probably got the details wrong, as time likes to mess with memory. I wish she could meet my daughter. She was the first friend mom I had.
I miss you.
