Common Ground Collective is an ad-hoc artist collective consisting of three female-identifying emerging artists from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The members of the collective - Gabriela Avila-Yiptong, Rachel Gray, and Lea Hamilton - each of whom offer different art-making practices, are unified by the idea of creating immersive spaces that encourage the viewer to occupy, spend time in, and discover nature in an artistic and urban environment. As a group, the collective seeks to (re)create reflections of nature with synthetic and organic materials encountered in urban environments in an immersive way, encouraging viewers to become aware of how the landscapes they occupy can influence them. The members produce work collectively and independently, challenging traditional conceptions of authorship not simply to deliver a message, but more so an experience. Furthermore, the collective believes that an environment can inherently be conversational, and as such, aims to create immersive spaces that extend opportunities for dialogue with the public in an accessible way.
Common Ground Collective thanks the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Ottawa for their support in 2019.