BETWEEN US

Some large-scale works rely on scale to create impact. David Popa’s work relies on fragility.

Created on the frozen surface of Abraham Lake in Alberta, Between Us was made using natural earth pigments and source water.

The image references kintsugi, the Japanese practice of honouring rather than concealing fractures. Here, the rupture is intensified by shifting ice, extreme wind and unstable terrain.

The landscape is not simply a backdrop. It is the surface, a collaborator and eventually the force that erases the work.

Its material logic and emotional meaning are inseparable. The instability of the frozen surface becomes part of the artwork itself.

Between Us exists only because the landscape allowed it to exist for a brief moment.

Seen against the lake, the pigment remains visibly distinct from the ice beneath it. The work cannot be separated from the weather, surface conditions or the limited time in which it can be encountered.