Into the Fold
|
Into the Fold opens a conversation on adoption, a topic that has historically been draped in shame, secrecy and lies. Three adoptees articulate concepts of belonging, attachment and identity through poems, sculptures, prints and drawings using words, paper, branches and fibre. From a shared lexicon of form, gesture and imagery Jessie Demers, Victoria Edgarr, and Beth Kope present works that draw meaning from the hidden folds of their histories.
The Adoptee Artists Collective was formed in January 2024 on Lekwungen Territory, Victoria BC. It was initiated to explore how each artist’s lived experiences as an adoptee has informed their creative practices. The collective currently consists of Beth Kope, Victoria Edgarr, Jessie Demers and Trudi Lynn Smith. They meet regularly, rotating between each artist’s studio or home, where they share their stories and explore one another’s artistic practices and processes. Instagram: @adopteeartistscollective |
Xchanges Gallery
Adoptee Artists Collective
Th e Collective showed single authoured work and 'ekphrastic' work.
|
|
Interactive Assemblage The Chosen Ones
before and after images- Victoria Edgarr and 40 anonymous participants
Sculpture Workshop: Attachment as Process
Jessie Demers & Trudi Lynn Smith April 15, 2026
|
Artists Talks and Poetry Reading
April 11 2026
Jessie Demers, Beth Kope, Victoria Edgarr
|
 Xchanges Main Gallery and Corridor Gallery
The artists were present throughout the six days of the show run. Many interesting and touching conversations were shared with the steady stream of visitors about art and adoption.
Responses in the comment book: "A profoundly moving experience, engendering so much to consider, question and simply to contemplate." L.O. Beautiful! Moving! Evocative! Thought Provoking! |
The Opening, April 3 2026, a lively celebration of the artwork's stepping beyond the studio in into the wide world. Thanks to all!
|
Into the Fold reflects the gesture of being welcomed into a chosen family as well as exploring what lies underneath the hidden folds of our histories and genetic ancestral memories.
Using a shared lexicon of form, gesture and imagery, the exhibition challenges and decodes social ideas around adoption, opening up a conversation about topics that have historically been draped in shame, secrecy and lies.
The work examines belonging, identity, and attachment within relationships, families, communities, and the natural world.
Using a shared lexicon of form, gesture and imagery, the exhibition challenges and decodes social ideas around adoption, opening up a conversation about topics that have historically been draped in shame, secrecy and lies.
The work examines belonging, identity, and attachment within relationships, families, communities, and the natural world.
The Artists: Beth Kope
"Fortune Teller, Folding"
Beth Kope
|
“I have treasured the process of working with mediums I’ve never explored, of working, playing, and creating alongside the other members, hearing their stories, watching as ideas became substantial and real. The collective has given me a deeply important experience. I was asked to join the collective because my third poetry book, Atlas of Roots, focuses on adoption. Over the years, I’d written adoption poems exploring my personal story, some framing my confusion and loss, some a response to generational memories. It was a shock to discover that a poem I’d written decades ago unburied a truth of my own beginnings, and my biological mother’s trauma. In writing the book, I’d wanted to unfold my many questions. Other people openly shared their experiences with adoption. I interviewed people who had found biological family and embraced it, or the opposite, families that had been created by adoption, or broken by it, mothers who found long lost sons, mothers who were mothers thanks to adoption, those who didn’t realize they were adopted until adulthood: really, the poems built a cross section of adoption issues. My book began with the personal but I was challenged to explore more than my own history, the cultural touchstones of what is family, what is belonging, and what is identity.” |
The Artists: Victoria Edgarr
 from "Nine Lives" 8' x 16' pencil drawing and gouache painting on Strathmore, polymer litho chine collé on Rives, newspaper, string, marbles paper brass findings, various objects
|
“My work in Into the Fold is a response to puzzling questions such as " What is it like being adopted?" or "Who am I like?" It includes paintings, drawings, embroideries, lithos, artist books, constructions, assemblages, and mounted cradles. They pieces function as answers to questions that create more questions. I like to blend the functional with the metaphorical, i.e. bookbinding means holding things together. To experience some pieces, your eyes do the 'touching'. Other pieces you need to hold in your hands." |
Victoria Edgarr's art practice spans 50 years and straddles Quebec and British Columbia beginning with her formal art education and training in printmaking in Montreal. Website: victoriaedgarr.com, Instagram: @victoriaedgarr
The Artists : Jessie Demers
 "Studies in Attachment"
|
“I began exploring my experience as an adoptee through my art practice in 2006, when I curated the group exhibition Somatica at Xchanges Gallery, which how we carry lived experiences and implicit ancestral memories in our bodies. My work in Into the Fold is a continuation of this exploration. Trees have always been powerful teachers for me. My work with roots, branches and grafted trees explores family histories, relational attachment, and my desire to recover a greater sense of connection and belonging to the earth.” |
Raised in Victoria BC, Jessie holds a BFA from NSCAD University and a BEd from UBC. She has worked in the arts for twenty years in a variety of roles including curating, teaching, and directing art education programs. She has returned to her art practice in recent years, exhibiting locally and participating in Canadian and International residencies. Website jessiedemers.ca Instagram jessie.n.demers
from
Trudi Lynn Smith holds a PhD in studio art and anthropology and specializes in research-creation. Her research and art practices embrace expressions of belonging, impermanence and change in communities of art, archives, ecology and collections. Trudi focuses on collaborative practices in art making, with humans and within more than human worlds. She also works as a clinical counsellor, focused on somatics, expressive arts therapies and eco-therapy. Website: trudilynnsmith.com