Joy Kardish | Simplicity in a Turbulent World
March 7 – 21
Reception: March 7, 3–5 pm
RSVP your attendance to responses@wallspacegallery.ca
Presales are open Saturday, Feb. 28 @ 10 am, online, in-person and via phone at 613-729-0003. If you would like to preview an artwork before collecting it, please contact the gallery at info@wallspacegallery.ca
Wall Space Gallery is proud to present Simplicity in a Turbulent World, a solo exhibition by Ottawa-based photographer Joy Kardish that considers the quiet, sustaining moments often overlooked in the midst of unrest. In this body of work, Kardish turns toward the textures of stillness, the subtle play of light and surface, and the small spaces where presence settles into form. Working through historic analog processes, she creates images that favor deliberation over immediacy and material depth over spectacle.
In The Light in the Forest, a cyanotype saturated in deep blue, a dense web of branches closes in around a small illuminated doorway. The composition is compressed and nearly impenetrable, yet the opening at its center holds steady. The image avoids spectacle. Instead, it pares nature down to contrast and structure. The light feels measured, held back and then let in.
Throughout the series, Kardish moves fluidly between interior and exterior spaces, capturing both the intimacy of domestic life and the quiet resilience of natural forms. Light threads through each image, shaping perception and revealing texture. Her careful attention to process and surface allows the viewer to inhabit these moments fully, noticing subtleties that might otherwise pass unseen.
In Priscilla’s Kitchen, a gelatin silver print, a lamp stands before a window, framed by potted plants. The tonal range is restrained and carefully modulated, giving the scene weight without sentimentality. The photograph allows the room to exist plainly, without narrative embellishment.
Across the exhibition, Kardish’s use of cyanotype, gelatin silver, and lith printing reflects a commitment to process as a form of discipline. They are structured, measured, and materially grounded. In a time marked by volatility and distraction, Simplicity in a Turbulent World proposes a steadier visual language, one rooted in light, shadow, and the enduring physicality of the photographic print.
Curator
Haruka Toyoda
Featured work:
Priscilla's Kitchen, Gelatin silver print on paper
The Light in the Forest, Cyanotype on paper