fQaroundtown: February 11& 12 2011 Concordia MFA Open Studios and Jannick Deslauriers at CIRCA gallery.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

February 11& 12 2011 Concordia MFA Open Studios and Jannick Deslauriers at CIRCA gallery.

Opening night party at the FOFA Gallery was the moment everything came together, I finally got my hands on the map of who was where after two days of looking for it and could make plans to visit the fibre studios and see who was doing what. This performance in red is by MFA class of 2013 Melanie Perreault with a BFA from Thompson River University was going on when I arrived.

The fibre department at Concordia has been turning out artist who work with textiles and fibre as a medium and as a concept. Some make textiles, most do things to them and with them and enrolment has been going up. MFA's come from different institutions and some from completely different fields, they bring a different approach.

Emily Jan from the California College of the Arts (formerly California College of Arts and Crafts) where she studied painting and drawing instantly grabbed my attention having just seen Sarah Garzoni's taxidermy chicken wearing a rabbit skin coat at Art Mur the day before.

dikdik & ghost dikdik [dikdik is a small antelope]

Working with wood, wool, gut, casting acrylic parts crocheting, sewing, felting she brings 3 dimensions to gesture drawings. With a cast head and layering transparent found textiles over an armature, she makes a ghost of a white rhino.

work in progress by Emily Jan

Jacquelyn Hebert with an undergrad in Anthropology from the University of Manitoba and second BA from Emily Carr is focused on the ways in which the Canadian Identity is constructed.

Presenting the symbols of "Great Out Doors" and the winter pass times [Sports] has been one way of exploring the Canadian identity almost as long as Canada has been a country. "Beaver Tales" at the U of T Arts Centre in 2008 had guest curators Rachel Gotlieb and Martha Kelleher presenting just over 100 pieces, "to illustrate how artists, designers and craft makers, working over the last two centuries,have managed to transcend the pitfalls of kitsch and cliché, while creating universal works drawn from and inspired by motifs of Canadian identity" Jacquelyn Hebert is looking at conveyances, snow shoes, snow mobiles and canoes, the design, construction methods, materials and end use in her work.

In the sub basement of the VA Building "Point de memoire: sports d' hiver" ["Point of memory: winter sports"] was being projected on two screens one hand woven the other knitted. Two super 8 films, one bought along with 7 others and a projector in a junk store in Winnipeg and the other produced by Jacquelyn Hebert. This piece was very seductive the quality of the projected image on the knitted screen just sucked you into yourself, your memory of winter landscapes, your childhood of tobogganing,

I spent most of my time speaking with Jacquelyn Hebert and Emily Jan who acted as a tour guide to the work other students who where not present. "the weaver" Sarah Gotowka is currently in Banff doing a residency while Carissa Carman is in France dying sheep blue. Apparently Carissa in not in France dying sheep blue as i was told, but Johanna Autin the third member of the The Color Collective (Johanna Autin, Carissa Carman, Sarah Gotowka), who is currently studying abroad in Grenoble, shearing sheep and acquiring the negotiations to dye a sheep blue.

Hopi Red Dye.by the Color Collective

I have been touch with both Gotowka and Carman {facebook does have its uses) and I have posted the image of the little red wagon with the plants it with permission and corrections from Carmen. The photo of Gotowka woven work has not been posted.

Other MFA students

"bricks" digital printed textile by Jenna Dawn McClellan

"Cement Blocks" digital printed textile by Jenna Dawn McClellan

n o r t h / s o u t h : a c c e s s 2010
Endurance Performance : Walk across St. Laurent Street
Montréal, Québec, August 17th, 2010, 07H15
Metal bucket, clothe and water from the St. Lawrence River
(Photography taken by Erika Nimis)

Click her to see video documentation of this performance

While wondering around Montreal I saw this interesting piece of art in a cafe on St Laurent in mile end. It intrigued me in that it seem to reference work from the Fibre Revolution of the 1960s and 70s which I have been researching. I got in touch with the artist who turned out to be a Concordia Graduate named Rachel Crummey and asked her about the work. She responded

" About the piece: I took one fibre arts class, although I've always considered myself more of a painter. This piece developed out of an interest in collage and a surplus of masking tape. I became inspired by the symmetrical pattern of the tape and the way it hung off the paper, its shaggy dimensionality. The doily is the focal point that unifies the piece. As I was making it, I thought about the texture of animal skin, and tried to imbue it with a sense of ancient magic".

As an answer it was plain enough and i am hoping she continues to explore this "shaggy dimensionality"

Websites

Concordia Fibre

Fibres Student Association (FSA)

Carissa Carman http://carissacarman.com/home.html

Jenna Dawn McClellan http://www.woventhreads.org/

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Jannick Deslauriers Telephone/ hydro pole 2010, sculpted tulle, organza and screening

Just before I left Concordia on Saturday afternoon one of the MFA students told me to go to the Jannick Deslauriers opening at CIRCA gallery.

"Traces et linceuls" / Traces and Shrouds is an extraordinarily haunting exhibitions. It is ethereal ghostly war torn street made of sculpted tulle, organza and screening. Jannick Deslauriers was born in Joliette, Québec.She has a DEC in in Visual Arts, from Collège Marie-Victorin, in Montreal where she now teaches and an Undergraduate in Visual arts (Bacc.), from Concordia University.

Ghost of a Tank

This large installation of a battle torn street complete with this ghost of a tank is very disturbing. visually it is barely there being made of nearly transparent materials thought it almost fills the gallery. The attention to detail is exacting and speaks of lives lived if not lost then as damaged as the broken piano and exposed water pipes and other pieces of urban infrastructure.