Rooted is all about the people and the places that make us proud to call our community home.
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Every good artist has a story behind every creation and Allan Hirsh is no exception, meticulously defining the ‘one person's trash is another person's treasure’ anecdote. Hirsh is a woodworker and a sculptor who breathes new life into found objects and treasures that he has acquired over the years. For the last two decades, Hirsh has displayed his collections through many exhibits both locally, at the Kennedy Gallery, White Water Gallery, Ferneyhough Contemporary Gallery, Novah Gallery, and around the province in the Temiskaming Art Gallery in Haileybury, and the Coles Art Market in Huntsville.
“My first exhibition was in 2001 at the White Water Gallery here in North Bay. I used to make wooden toys for my three boys. The leftover pieces of wood made their way into collages. Eventually, I began to add metal hardware and interesting objects that I came across in yard sales and antique stores,” says Hirsh.
Before sculpting, Hirsh has been a published cartoonist.
“My mother was an artist and she taught me the importance of creativity in all aspects of life. There is a joy and peacefulness that comes with the creative spark.”
After 50 years as a psychotherapist, Hirsh has recently retired and he says “It’s been my creativity and artistic expression that has helped me stay relatively sane after all these years.”
“I have been in private practice in the North Bay area since 1978. At the end of 2021, I sold my couch, gave away my filing cabinets, and closed my office. For years, I sat at an old 1940s oak desk where I organized my notes and made new appointments. I loved my desk, but it was too heavy and large to move out of my office. After some thought, I figured out how to take the desk apart and move the wood into my studio. Over the summer of 2022, I made art from the wood I salvaged,” says Hirsh.
That art is now going to be on display in his upcoming exhibit at the Kennedy Gallery, which Hirsh calls his ‘Retirement’ exhibition which will open on Tuesday, July 4th, and run until August 4th with an opening reception on Friday, July 7th from 6 to 8 p.m.
“I applied for an exhibition last August and was notified in May that my exhibition was approved. Creating art is a very solitary experience. Sharing art is exciting and scary at the same time,” says Hirsh. “My last large exhibition at the Kennedy Gallery was in 2013 and was called Collect and Assemble. Currently, some of my work is at the Coles Art Market in Huntsville.”
Hirsh was born in Montreal and studied psychology and math at McGill University. He completed his Master’s Degree at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon. During his time out west, he met a friend who lived on the land outside of Powassan and that started bringing him to the North Bay area.
“I always assumed I could burn out. I knew I had to move my body every day and keep my creativity alive. Whatever issues come up in life, creativity can increase your coping options,” says Hirsh. “As a sculptor, I help people see my found artifacts and discarded pieces of wood with a different eye. Sometimes there is a serious theme to the work, but often there is a sense of play and discovery. Hopefully, that spark of joy I feel when creating will become apparent to others. Kids seem to love my exhibits because a lot of the pieces can be played with. Not everyone gets my work, but most people see that I am having a good time puttering away in my workshop.”
Hirsh adds it’s not just the time spent sculpting that he enjoys about these pieces.
“The joy of the hunt and the excitement in the find becomes part of the ongoing narrative of each piece. Each artifact will rest for a while in a cluttered, but organized workshop until its new calling becomes apparent. A central idea triggered by a particular object will generate a process of assembly in which objects are added or taken away with the goal of intuitively improving what the eye sees,” says Hirsh. “I am always on the hunt for interesting objects and discarded wood that can be used in my work. I love flea markets, yard sales, and dusty antique shops. An assemblage can take a few days to several weeks depending on the complexity and challenges of the piece.”
Hirsh says the historical narrative of the objects is also something that interests him and helps shape the story of the final piece.
“Individual artifacts that once were used daily have been discarded and ignored. I find these objects and try to see their texture, shape, and use in a new light. I create a new story for them in the creation of my assemblages. New relationships and meanings are formed and the new gestalt offers an organization that is hopefully both unique and visually interesting,” he says. “I am interested in the relationships that different objects have with each other. I enjoy exploring visual balance in three-dimensional space as the shape of one artifact plays off another. Texture, colour, and type of material are all taken into account.”
And Hirsh has added another layer to his overall work.
“I love old switches and mechanisms that move. A lever from an old meat grinder takes centre stage as it turns with a satisfying resistance. An old electrical switch clicks on command and I feel as if something has been accomplished. The illusion of control fills me with a subtle joy as I manipulate switches and levers and dials that seem to do something but, in fact, only alter my inner state.”
Hirsh says most of the pieces in the “Retirement” exhibition will be available for sale and a portion of the price will go to the Capital Centre.
If you have a story idea for the “Rooted” series, send Matt an email at [email protected].
