May 5 to Nov 3, 2014
Crystal Przybille, Wish, 2014, mixed media
Photography: Clea Haugo
Kelowna-based artist Crystal Przybille has created a work reminiscent of two giant bird wings, made from wood and metal. Entitled Wish, the piece is intended to make reference to the human longing for and efforts toward flight, based on our age-old observation of the freedom of air-borne birds. Wish makes visual reference to ornithopters, that is, the early mechanical inventions based on bird wings that were intended to enable people to fly. The artist drew upon her experience attending a First Nations’ brushing ceremony that included the use of eagle wings. She would like Wish to convey the transformative power of intention, belief, and will.
The wings are connected by a central trailing red ribbon that looks like a thin river of blood. The wooden feather-shaped elements have been stained with earth, iron dust, and other natural substances.
Crystal Przybille is a painter and sculptor who received her BFA from the University of Victoria via Okanagan University College in Kelowna in 1997. She has several successful public art commissions to her credit, including a large bronze statue of Father Pandosy (located at the Pandosy Mission historical site in Kelowna), and an outdoor, multi-site, multi-piece work titled The Hands of Time, commemorating the sesquicentennial of the City of Victoria.
