About

.Alysha Farling-Futterman is a visual artist living and working in Victoria BC, on the unceded territories of the Lekwungen speaking peoples.

Farling received her BFA from Concordia University in 2013, where she majored in Drawing and Painting. After she graduated, her focus shifted towards sculpture, where it remains. 

Farling has shown in multiple cities across Canada; in both established galleries and artist run centers as well as DIY spaces in solo and group exhibitions. She has done four residencies; Residencia Corazon (Argentina), Camosun College (Victoria), Bonnie McComb Kreye (Victoria) and Rockslide (Victoria), has had a book of her sketchbooks published and recently created an outdoor installation for a local neighborhood festival. She has received funding from Canada Council for the Arts for her work..

Farling is currently living with her husband and three year old daughter while attempting to find balance between motherhood and her art practice.

Artist Statement

When I was a kid I always wanted the ability to shrink down very small so I could explore the worlds I could not see. I grew up with, what seemed at the time, a never ending garden, and a house that seemed to have endless places to play. I fantasized about living in between rocks, under giant leaves, in cracks in the walls, inside our furniture and under our crumbling stairs. This garden and home was full of a kind of magic that I feel I’ve been searching for ever since. Not just the beauty of these places but also the dark and strange, the tingly, the scary and the inexplainable side of magic.

It was the objects from our lives, repurposed, a thimble as a bowl, a tuna can as a bed,  mixed into the stories I loved as a kid, that made the possibility of miniature worlds feel believable. 

Reimagining and finding wonder in everyday objects and remnants/debris of daily life, while searching for that magic that was easily found as a child, is the foundation on which I build. 

Now working with collected materials - found, discarded and personal - I create miniature worlds. I find pleasure in giving new life to otherwise forgotten “trash” and bringing together materials that wouldn’t normally coexist allowing them to create new meanings and stories. 

Though my sculptures feel alive, no creatures or characters live in these worlds. My hope is to inspire the viewer to imagine what could be living here. 

The buildings and homes I create are memory holders for me. As the materials interact, so do the memories of where these materials came from. This process of collecting and building mimics moments of play as a child, and the contrast between gnarly current-day found objects, such as cigarette butts, bones and baggies, and play is something I find engaging and meaningful. Within that contrast there is a liveliness and friction that creates both curiosity and discomfort and adds a vibrancy that otherwise would not be there.

Because I work intuitively, my sculptures feel as though they are an extension of myself.