Artist Talk: Embedded Histories / Allison, Heywood-Jones, Hickox, Long, Handleigh

The Intersection of Flora and Human Touch

Embedded Histories is a meditation on the ways we care for the past, the present, and the future. By weaving together narratives of healing, remembrance, and transformation, this exhibition offers an immersive and evocative experience for visitors.

This thought-provoking group exhibition curated by artist and educator Ursula Handleigh, features works by Carrie Allison, Anna Heywood-Jones, April Hickox, and Jennifer Long. Together they explore intricate connections between flora, memory, and acts of care.

Whether through the meticulous craft of beading (Allison), the delicate process of mending (Long), the transformative imprint of botanical dyes (Heywood-Jones), or the evocative arrangement of florals and objects (Hickox), these artists transform natural elements into poignant reflections on loss, resilience, and connection to place.

Allison’s beaded works honour medicinal plants from her ancestral home in northwest Alberta, drawing on Métis and nêhiyaw traditions to emphasize cultural connection. Long’s delicate interventions with found foliage reflect on the unseen labour of caregiving, exploring the balance between self-care and community. Heywood-Jones employs botanical dyeing processes to mark the profound transformation of motherhood, tracing the shared cycles of plant and human life. Hickox’s still-life photography and video works use floral arrangements as a meditation on loss, memory, and the passage of times.

Artist Profile - Carrie Allison

Carrie Allison is a nêhiýaw, Métis, and mixed European descent interdisciplinary visual artist, mother, community organizer, and educator based in K’jipuktuk, Mi’kma’ki (Halifax, Nova Scotia). She grew up on the unceded and unsurrendered lands of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Stó:lō and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam) Nations. Her maternal roots and relations are based inmaskotewisipiy (High Prairie, Alberta), Treaty 8. Her artistic and social practice responds to her maternal nêhiýaw and Métis ancestry, thinking through intergenerational cultural loss through critiquing colonialism, enacting Indigenous methodologies of making, and seeks to build upon knowledges and artistic genius of past Indigenous ancestors. She strives to build connections and equitable, sustainable, and accountable relationships through collaborating with others on social arts practices.

Artist Profile - Anna Heywood-Jones

Anna Heywood-Jones is a settler artist and educator based on the traditional and unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations, colonially known as Vancouver. Through her work, Heywood-Jones considers the complex relationship between human and botanical spheres, often articulated through textile materials and processes.

Additionally, her artistic practice explores birth, death, and metamorphoses through the lens of personal experience.

Artist Profile - April Hickox

Update: Since this exhibition and talk last spring, news has reached us that April Hickox has passed following a long fight with cancer (April 24, 1955-August 15, 2025). [Link]

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April Hickox is a lens-based artist, teacher and independent curator who lives on the Toronto Islands. Over the course of 37 years, April has mined the distinctions between personal and public sites through film, video, photography and installation. Her work with objects and still life is rooted in narrative histories that individuals accumulate throughout their lives and the ability of inanimate objects to shape memory. April is an Associate Professor of Photography at the OCAD University in Toronto.

Artist Profile - Jennifer Long

Jennifer Long is an artist, curator, and arts administrator based in Tkaronto (Toronto). Through a Feminist lens, she works with constructed narratives that are inspired by the quiet moments in women’s lives where seemingly nothing (and everything) occurs. Long is especially interested in the complex emotions that underlie these mundane points in time. Themes of vulnerability, growth, community, and motherhood are explored as she examines daily life and rituals within it. Long is a founding member and co-director of Feminist Photography Network.

Artist Profile - Ursula Handleigh (curator)

Ursula Handleigh is a Tkaronto Scarborough-born artist and educator of Filipinx/a/o mixed-ancestry working within expanded photography, moving image and alternative processes of image making. While challenging traditional methods of documentation, Handleigh’s practice explores questions of identity and how the role of memory, ancestral knowledge and storytelling can be used to reconstruct archives and preserve histories. Handleigh holds an MFA from NSCAD University and a BFA from OCAD University. Handleigh has received grants from SSHRC and Canada Council and has participated in numerous residencies and exhibited throughout Canada and internationally including the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Harbourfront Centre and Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier21. Handleigh is currently an Assistant Professor at OCAD University.