My work is about reconciling and playing with the tension between man-made and natural systems. The workings of society and the fall out from colonialism has exacerbated a sense of disconnection that can play out on a personal, community, systemic and global scale. I look to patterns in nature, culture, intimacy and our bodies on a macro and micro scale to comprehend the imbalances in our systems and to build connections, healing, and community.
I work with tension to investigate moments where personal/social/political/cultural elements can crossover, connect, and reconcile. I draw on organic and geometric visual elements, understanding that they carry knowledge of patterns, cycles, stories and memory. In turn this offers a connection to the history of the land and culture (both 'traditional' and contemporary). As a Settler-Artist (Polish-Ukraian, Scottish-Irish) with a family history of farming in the Prairies, I recognize it is important to look at how my connection to my own history is recorded, interpreted, experienced and expressed. interplay of long and short cycles..part documentation, part exploration, part play & collaboration, part translation & building,
Through this exploration duality falls away and it becomes clear that things are much more fluid than they first appear. We are all powerfully connected.
Inner Space – Outer Space: The Fabric of the Universe
Exhibit at the Yukon Art Centre - 2026
Artist Statement
Basia explores the interconnectedness between humans, the cosmos, and the earth on macro and micro scales through paintings, installations, and a soundscape in this exhibit. The imagery references sound waves, medicinal plants, ancestral connection, northern constellations, space- time, and human figures that serve as conduits between the earth and the sky. Basia aims to infuse her art practice with these healing forces.
She is interested in her Slavic cultural teachings based on a peaceful/non-warring time period in the Ukraine from 5000 -2500 BCE when the society was women led, matriarchal, and goddess worshipping. The imagery from this Neolithic time period is still predominant in present day patterns on clothing, scarves (granny/kokum scarves), egg painting (pysanky), and decorated fabric (rushnyky).
There is currently a movement to counteract the war in Ukraine by imbuing objects with peace and good fortune through patterns rooted in ancient Slavic knowledge, including folk magic. The teachings of the Tree of Life (geometric pattern which is printed on the figures in the paintings) honour women as central to the connection between earth and sky.
Basia came across the large bark cloth fabric (from the Ficus/Fig Tree) near the Nile River 20 years ago while working for the UN in Kenya and visiting family in Uganda. She purchased 6 blankets and started painting on one, but stopped when she learned they were sacred objects used for regalia and burial shrouds, as well as blankets. She felt she didn’t own them and was just a temporary caretaker until she re-homed them back in Uganda. A few years ago she discovered that the bark cloth process has become a UNESCO Heritage practice that is almost extinct, and that Ugandan’s want artists internationally to work with them to help create a market that could revitalize the traditional process. Basia was drawn to work with the material again, and encourages others to do the same. Contact Basia for inquiries about purchasing the bark cloth.
Untitled Soundscape - by Jon Deline & Nate Wood - (For paintings on display in Yukon Art Centre Gallery Exhibit)
The sounds you are hearing were rendered by “feeding” Basia’s visual pieces to a software program designed to translate visual data into “beeps and boops” (harmonic and timbral elements) and “fleeps and floops” (rules, parameters and triggers that you hear as both soundscape variation and plucked guitar). In essence, you are “hearing” Basia’s visual works, with an ethereal accompaniment featuring Nate Wood’s soulful harmonicas emulating the call-and-response nature of both timeless interstellar transmissions and that of essential, embodied awareness.
A more technical description would be that the soundscape was composed using an interpolative technique whereby visuals form a generative basis for sound synthesis that is mapped from variant luminance gradients across the displayed pieces themselves; creating modulated, gated signals.
Bios
Jon Deline produces sound design and composition as Phase Variance. He uses an interpretive/generative approach to create pieces with found sound and software that serve as a basis for articulating an ongoing exploration of being.
Nate Wood is a musician from Dawson City who uses loop and effect pedals in combination with harmonica and guitar.