a month of stolen light




Jacob Irish


 
SCaM Project Space
July 31st - September 6, 2026
Toronto, ON.


link to exhibition essay by curator Joshua Rogin

I would like to acknowledge the funders and skilled artists and craftspeople I have had the pleasure of working with to realize a number of the works included in a month of stolen light. a month of stolen light's funders include the Region of Waterloo Arts fund, Pat the Dog Theatre Creation’s Microgrants, and Superframe's Framing Fund. Thanks to Mitch and the woodshop team at Superframe for their brilliant execution and willingness to include iron acetate in their finishing process. Thanks to Nicolette Keaney for her technical expertise in slip-casting translucent porcelain for the lithophanes included in Ophelia, and everywhere but here. Thanks to Adrien Landry and Lheila Palumbo at CTCM in Montreal fabricated the weaving for a month of stolen light. Thanks to Julie Hall and Juli Wichert for their help with hand sewing the pocket on the back of the weaving. Thanks to Joshua Rogin for his curatorial support and lovely work on the exhibition essay. Thanks to Lauren Prousky for her poetry included in the essay. Thanks to Torin Langen for his help with load-in and install. Thanks to LFdocumentation for documenting the show, and thanks to Ciar and Joshua, and SCaM for stewarding the show.

I appreciate you all, and your support of this work.


Materials:


Grass we let go to seed and harvested by scythe from the backyard of a house we rented in Waterloo is distributed interstitially throughout the exhibition.

| Shepard’s Tone: ink and charcoal on paper, custom cherry wood frame stained with iron acetate | I need all of you in white, on the lawn: coloured pencil, custom frame with quite a beautiful gradient | Ophelia and everywhere but here: drywall, canvas, graphite, leather, pine, spruce, cedar, walnut, ash, stainless steel hardware, cork, Kneadatite, soap stone, cast iron and brass hardware, super sculpey, polycarbonate, pewter pigs with empty bellies gifted by a friend, kitchen cabinet LED strip lighting, PLA, aluminum, 18ga silicone hook-up wire, cedar garden gates from the local Gate Man, oil paint, oil stick, translucent porcelain lithophanes, PVC electrical tape, assorted pieces of a made-in-Kitchener Krug chair from the bowels of the university, A horrible silicon tongue. Iron acetate made by dissolving steel wool in vinegar (it’s nice to know something so solid can become so liquid with enough surface area). XPS-imbricated PLA hands, hardwood, bone-coloured tile grout. Common nails driven with reptilian intention. Linoleum from the floor of a house that hurt us, Various cementitious and gypsum based materials, barbecue ash, hay, coloured pencil, glass, brass, ceramic tile, construction adhesive, digital prints on paper, iberville outlet boxes, marrets, wago connectors, thumb. | Caged Sun: carved slate roofing tile from a demolished historic building in Halifax, NS. Aluminum dibond from a sign shop I worked at in 2017. PVC, PLA, PVA, XPS, the imbricated base of an office chair that smelled like cigarettes. | The drawers: drawers from a table I was told was oak, but was actually ash. A Drawer from a desk my Dada (my maternal grand father) made me, Springs from the same Krug chair, dried flowers (gifted). A rusted-shut lock, carved drywall, sun-kissed epoxy resin, winterstone, plaster, cement, tile grout, aluminum mesh, a seagull bone, soapstone, turned spindle from a coffee table. Various door, drawer, and hook hardware assembled and often rusted together, a small birds nest we found that is made from the fur from our good friend’s dead dog (while he was alive). 3d printed images of my colonoscopy, fresnel lens from an old LCD screen, 3d printed resin lithophanes. | a month of stolen light: XPS-imbricated PLA hands, hardwood, bone-coloured tile grout. Mercerized cotton weaving based on a series of photographs of a giant Hogweed plant over the course of 28 days in Bechtel Park in Waterloo.