News & Events

Monday, April 28 - Tuesday, July 29, 2025

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Divining Rod: How to Walk Through the Liminality of Thin Spaces​ 

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Photographs by Kim Fahner

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Art Gallery of Sudbury (AGS)

Off-Site Exhibition at Pinchman's ​

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​Artist Statement:

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In the Celtic tradition, ‘thin spaces’ are those spots where worlds and dimensions rub up against one another, and where glimmers of transcendence and wonder live. 

These photos were taken in Northern and Southwestern Ontario, Ireland, Nova Scotia, and British Columbia from 2018-2024. When I take photos while I’m out walking in both urban and rural areas, my eye is drawn to things that arrive in my mind’s eye as both visual images and as lines in a poem. I will often say (out loud), “It’s a painting and a poem,” when I see something wonderful and poetic as I walk (or sometimes swim) through wild spaces. In cities, my eye is drawn to the patterns of lines and shapes, as well as colours and textures. 

In all cases, I am aware of how close the veil between this world and others is thin, especially in terms of inspiration and the mysticism of the creative process. This is true in my creative writing, but also in the visual art that I’ve begun to experiment with in recent years through letterpress, linocut, watercolour, rug hooking, and free form embroidery. Poetry requires that same sense of close observation and curiosity for what dwells in the ‘thin places.’ There are no borders for creativity, just thresholds where the veil is thin. Creativity, for me, is liminal, carrying me across thresholds that aren’t always so easily mapped. Bridges, doorways, windows, and the natural elements all serve as images that draw me in—in both my photographs, and in my writing.

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Each photograph has served as an individual prompt for a bespoke ekphrastic poem that is hand written in green cursive on the back of frame. A typed version will also be given to those who purchase the photos. All photos may be purchased here: 

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​https://artsudbury.org/en/whats-on/exhibitions/kim-fahner-at-pinchmans/

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