Traditional "civilized" definitions of kinship tend to prioritize blood relations, which have often been used to claim and control territory, property, and status. In our contemporary context, it might serve us to divorce kinship from these concepts and instead amplify its resonances to include emotional bonds to community, place, and non-human bodies.

In this Studio Session, we will use clay as a tool to connect us across time and space to ancestors, land, and memories. Kinship might extend to a rock in Iceland or a great aunt’s recipe for borscht or a farmhouse in Japan. By loosening outdated terminology and strengthening the links to each other (in this session and beyond), we will consider the broader social implications of expanding what it means to be kin.

Magdolene Dykstra is an artist and educator. Working in sculpture, installation, and markmaking, Dykstra’s practice focuses on exploring the tension between growth and decay, order and chaos, individuality and the multiplicity of our species, visibility and anonymity. Her methodology centres around repetitive actions that lead to an accumulation of small components within intricate, shifting ecosystems using materials that embody a relationship with the Earth, its forms, and processes. After studying biology and visual arts in undergraduate degrees, she received her MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University. Magdolene has participated in residencies at the Medalta Historic Clay District, the Watershed Center for Arts and Crafts and Concordia University. Magdolene has been awarded several grants from the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts. Notable exhibitions include site-specific installations at the Gardiner Museum (Toronto, ON) and the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery (Waterloo, ON), as well as solo exhibitions at the Jane Hartsook Gallery (New York, NY) and A-B Projects (Los Angeles, CA).

This Studio Session took place in June 2023.