Wanda Koop: Light Sticks

When I first encountered Wanda Koop’s Light Sticks, I was immediately enchanted, caught in a quiet spell. I knew then that if I were ever to collect sculpture, the very first work I acquired would come from this extraordinary body of work.

Light Sticks debuted in Wanda’s solo exhibition Wanda Koop: Lightworks at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. The installation comprises two suites of long, slender wooden sticks, rendered in her unmistakable brushwork and expressive colours, carefully arranged as if composing a musical score.

One way to appreciate Light Sticks is to consider Henri Matisse’s cut-outs. Matisse cut coloured paper into forms of varying shapes and sizes, and arranged them into lively, harmonious compositions. This playful, creative spirit is shared by Light Sticks—before the current title was adopted, Wanda referred to the pieces as “pick-up sticks”, a term I love.

This whimsical moniker offers insight into the artist’s process. The sticks are meant to be lifted, rearranged, and placed anew; each iteration reveals something different. If each stick were a musical note, each arrangement would become a fresh melody. While Matisse’s cut-outs were fixed by the artist, Light Sticks open a realm of creation to all who encounter them, inviting us to imagine endless variations. They may stand as individual elements or gather as intimate or expansive ensembles, their orders ever mutable, guided by whatever artistic logic prevails. All possibilities—and impossibilities—are infinite.

Light Sticks are presented alongside Wanda’s recent paintings, including her “Dead Poplar Resurrection Project”—a series depicting dead poplars that remain upright. She remarked, “When a tree dies, its artistic life has just begun.” Every time I walk into the room of Light Sticks, I am filled with excitement, love, and boundless inspiration, and imbued with tremendous strength to stand fully in this moment against the tide of ephemerality.