< ECU Directory

Emily Hermant

Associate Professor, Sculpture + Expanded Practices

Availability:

Education:

MFA
BFA

Bio

Emily Hermant holds a BFA from Concordia University and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work has been featured in ArtSlant, Espace Sculpture and TimeOut Chicago. Emily has had residencies at the Burrard Arts Foundation, Haystack and the Ox-Bow School of Art. She has received grants from the B.C. Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Emily is represented by Monte Clark Gallery.

Websites:

Research Interests

At its core, Emily’s practice examines the materiality of communication. By tracing the afterlives of technological debris, she uncovers tactile ways of seeing and sensing the infrastructures that shape our world. She uses slowness as a methodology, contrasting the rapid flow of information with material forms that require sustained attention. Drawing extensively from textile traditions, Emily repurposes defunct transmission materials—telecommunications wire scrap, recycled data cables, and obsolete components—through labour-intensive hand-making processes.

Courses

Course Name Department Course Code Term
Sculpture SCLP 210 27/SP

Description

This studio course introduces students to the materials, methods, and conceptual frameworks that shape contemporary sculpture. Students will explore a range of traditional and digital approaches to making sculpture, with an emphasis on how materials and processes generate meaning in sculptural form. Studio assignments encourage students to apply these materials and processes to thematic prompts that address relationships between bodies, objects, and space. Themes may include repetition and multiples; systems and structures; body extensions and wearables; figurative sculpture and representations of the figure; and social engagement or participatory sculpture.

Students will participate in a series of technical workshops in the Soft Shop, Digital Fabrication Lab, Metal Shop, and Flexible Materials Lab (the third workshop rotates between Metal and Flexible Materials depending on the year). These workshops provide hands-on experience with fabrication processes that support material experimentation and the development of technical proficiency across a range of sculptural practices. Through demonstrations, presentations, discussions, and critiques, students will develop both technical fluency and conceptual depth, situating their work within the broader contexts of contemporary sculptural practice.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Visual Arts Studio VAST 400 27/SP

Description

This Senior Studio (Open Studio) course provides students with the opportunity to propose and develop a self-directed body of work. Sections are taught by a singular faculty member or offered in a team-taught model with the option of discipline specificity. Whether through assigned projects, artistic production, research, discussions, writing and critique, students are expected to increase their understanding of the content and context of their process and production as well as their knowledge of contemporary art. Students meet regularly for group seminars as well as in one-to-one tutorials with their instructor(s). Critiques and discussions complement studio production where considerable independent time and maturity is expected.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Visual Arts Studio VAST 410 27/SP

Description

This course provides students with the opportunity to propose and develop a self-directed body of work. Sections are often offered in a team-taught model with an interdisciplinary focus. Through artistic production, research, discussions, writing and critique, students are expected to increase their understanding of the content and context of their process and production as well as their knowledge of contemporary art. Students meet regularly for group meetings as well as in one-to-one tutorials with their instructor(s). Critiques and discussions complement studio production where considerable independent time and maturity is expected.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Sculpture SCLP 310 26/FA

Description

This course is intended for students who wish to deepen their investigations of concepts, methods, and materials in contemporary sculpture practice. Students will complete projects in response to a range of current issues and concerns within the field, which may include: memory and (counter) monuments; site-specificity and locational practice; collecting and repurposing materials and objects; material vitality and thing theory; kinetic objects; sustainability; and media/time-based approaches. Students will be assessed in the development of ideas and contextual research, as well as in technical processes and related materials. Students will be introduced to the Metal Shop, Wood Shop, Flexible Materials/Mold-making Shop, Soft Shop, and/or the Digital Fabrication lab. Through selected demonstrations, students will have the chance to deepen their engagement with technical and material processes related to these Shops, which may include mold-making and casting a range of materials and forms, experimenting with surface applications for built forms, sandcasting metal in the Foundry, working with textiles, and/or developing 3-d work through digital output such as the CNC. Students will continue to refine their critical vocabulary through presentations, readings, group discussions, and critiques.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.

Visual Arts Studio VAST 400 26/FA

Description

This Senior Studio (Open Studio) course provides students with the opportunity to propose and develop a self-directed body of work. Sections are taught by a singular faculty member or offered in a team-taught model with the option of discipline specificity. Whether through assigned projects, artistic production, research, discussions, writing and critique, students are expected to increase their understanding of the content and context of their process and production as well as their knowledge of contemporary art. Students meet regularly for group seminars as well as in one-to-one tutorials with their instructor(s). Critiques and discussions complement studio production where considerable independent time and maturity is expected.

Pre-requisites

No prerequisites.