Harold Sikkema

I make digital tapestries. They are hyper-detailed, composite images printed into synthetic amber. I preserve life-traces. Ephemera fleet into my camera, dancing with my eyes: a relentless ritual. Sculptural intervention, whether tactile or virtual, is integral to my creative rhythm. I'm fascinated by incidental mark-making: the lines and boundaries we inadvertently draw through sins of commission and omission. Our footprints give us away, peeking curiously through the thin veil of routine. I reflect on my participation in (sometimes violent) patterns, and revel in the scrupulously-stitched gigapixel evidence. Alongside the software that empowers my myth-making, I filter the emergent stories through layers of understanding: the life experiences of growing up, traversing continents, loving my family, and seeking God. The embodied commitments of Calvinists are visually sparse, but I've brought Rothko to bear on their wonder and wander. Word games fail, but irony is not lost. I've come to celebrate the tension of being an iconoclast on paper and an image-maker at heart.

Hons. BA, Art & Multimedia, McMaster University '08
Guido de Brès Christian High School '03

LANDSCRAPES| youmegallery | Hamilton, Ontario | February, 2013

Art in the Workplace | Hamilton, Ontario | November, 2012

MOVE: an upwards journey| Hamilton, Ontario | April, 2012

City Beautiful | Hamilton, Ontario | November, 2011

HAMILTON24 Festival | Hamilton, Ontario | June, 2011

Artcetera - Elora Centre for the Arts | Elora, Ontario | April, 2010

Across Borders | Redeemer University, Ancaster Ontario | June, 2009

play nice | McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton Ontario | April, 2009

Four Walls | McMaster University, Hamilton Ontario | March, 2009

Visual Theology (solo show) | James North Studio, Hamilton Ontario | February, 2009