“This part of the country seems to have all hell for a basement, and the only trap door appears to be in Medicine Hat.”

– Rudyard Kipling, quoted in the Medicine Hat News, Thursday October 17, 1907

The phrase, all hell for a basement, is a direct reference to this quote from author Rudyard Kipling, which refers to the shallow and abundant natural gas found in Medicine Hat. This wealth of natural gas, along with ample clay deposits, supported the development of ceramic industries and secured the legacy of the Historic Clay District. As an artist who recently moved to Medicine Hat to work at Medalta, I wanted to make work that explored contemporary life in small town Alberta, cowboy culture, and the history of this place buried beneath the surface.

This exhibition, all hell for a basement, and I keep digging, is a play on the original phrase. Digging is an action that elicits ideas around excavation, exploration, and discovery. The work for this project, however, is asking the question, if you were to keep digging in a place where the crust of the earth is so thin, what would happen? It could mean falling through to the other side of the world, serpentining your way into hell, digging your own grave, or bursting a water pipe. In Saturday morning cartoons, small actions create disproportionate reactions, impossible new outcomes, and absurd realities. A painted archway becomes a passageway for Road Runner, but then immediately resolidifies for Wile E. Coyote. In that way, the dogged pursuit of futile actions creates the opportunity for humour. The ceramic sculptures that fill the Yuill Family Gallery oscillate between play and precarity, slap-stick gimmicks and intimacy, stereotypes and personal anecdotes. This body of work is looking to dig through the thin barrier of earth, find the trap door into hell, and discover what is waiting on the other side.

all hell for a basement, and I keep digging is a love-letter to Medicine Hat, Saturday morning cartoons, and all the other small things that have helped me feel at home in small-town Alberta.

Artist Statement

Kasia Sosnowski (she/her) is an emerging artist from southern Alberta. Her work focuses on how clay embodies ideas around care, fragility, affect, and transformation. She often uses visual-gags, colour, absurdity, and humour as methods to disarm and discuss difficult subject matter.

She is currently living, working, and maintaining her art practice in Medicine Hat, Alberta where she is Residency Coordinator at the Medalta International Artist in Residence (MIAIR) ceramic program.

See Kasia Sosnowski  on Instagram or her website