Garbologic Objects

"Burnt clay, apart from being breakable, is practically indestructible."

from On the Shores of Light by Peter Bamm (1961)



Using her own domestic space as basis for Garbologic Objects, Maura Doyle has been collecting and studying the stuff around her to create a series of ceramic sculptures and two photo-based works. At her family farm property she sifted the contents of a private dumpsite and collected sticks from the pet cemetery. In her home studio she recreated the things around her in clay. This exhibition reflects her research about our social relationship with nature (through what we consume and what we leave behind) and the history of the medium of clay and its ties to archeology.



Maura Doyle holds a BFA from the Emily Carr Institute in Vancouver and an MFA from the University of Guelph. Her work is interdisciplinary with a focus on sculpture, ceramics, video, drawing, artist’s books and multiples. A consistent theme throughout her practice is the use of nature as a lens through which to view culture (and vice versa).

Her most recent bookwork is titled Guide to the History of Beaver Architecture: Sticks and Mud Reconsidered (Paul Petro Contemporary Art 2009).

Exhibitions include Bone Dump Scotia Bank Nuit Blanche, City of Toronto (2011); 5th KW/AG Biennial, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery (2011); Sometimes we make it, Remo (Osaka 2006); GLN - Spaceship Earth, Club Transmediale (Berlin 2006); Dedicated to you, but you weren’t listening, Power Plant (Toronto 2005); The Cave and the Island, White Columns (New York 2004). She lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario.


The artist wishes to acknowledge the support of the Ontario Arts Council.