2013 Textiles: With Love (you understand)

You can follow my January 2013 Textile and Design Sightings on this facebook album  "design does Toronto 2013"

I have a confession to make, i am a textile junkie, I acquired my first piece of  marimekko ® in 1978 at a design store  called Karelia in the south east corner of the Manulife Centre in Toronto. it was the classic  UNIKKO over sized floral. designed by Maija Isola in 1964.

Years later I discovered the store was own by the father of a friend I had met many years after the store had closed and through him I was able to get hold of not one but two sample books printed in Finland by Sävypaino Oy 1979. I no longer have the textile i bought. In 2010 at the IDS (Interior Design Show) there was a shop selling vintage marimekko ® textiles and wallpaper

Wallpaper on the left  bottom Frekvenssi deigned by Harri Koskinen , top is Ystavata designed by Maija Louekari  textile on right is  UNIKKO  

This another recognizable pattern KAIVO also designed by Maija Isola in 1964 from the Sample Book

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the reason I bring  up marimekko ® beside my love of the design is that the Textile Museum of Canada is participating in this years Toronto International Design Festival by presenting Marimekko, With Love which opens on January 21 and I am very much looking forward to this exhibition

Curated by the TMC's executive director Shauna McCabe this show " is a retrospective look at the company’s origins and role in shaping a new aesthetics and approach to living through fashion and design. Founded in 1951 by visionary designer Armi Ratia and her husband Viljo, marimekko ® not only sparked an international revolution in post-WWII pattern and textile production but captured a new philosophy based on the power of design in everyday life – marimekko ®  was “a cultural phenomenon guiding the quality of living,” Armi recounted in 1962. In Canada, a groundbreaking design studio called Karelia introduced  marimekko ® and contemporary Finnish design to international audiences. Named for the historical Finnish region and Armi Ratia’s birthplace, Karelia’s founder – architect, interior and industrial designer Janis Kravis – developed a close relationship with Marimekko’s early creative minds. Objects in the exhibition are primarily drawn from Karelia’s collections and archives."

My resource for every thing  marimekko ® is another prized possession

Marimekko: Fabrics, Fashion, Architecture (Bard Graduate Centre for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design & Culture S.) This book is the catalogue for an exhibition at the Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, and Culture in November 2003.

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All dressed up and many places to go. this is Automotive Paint encrusted chicken wire dress by Sophie de Francesca, in the booth Galerie D'Este had at the IDS 2012, ( QC Galerie D'Este, 1329 Greene Avenue. Montreal, QC, Canada. www.galeriedeste.com

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As it does every January Toronto looks inside and celebrates that which is Interior Decor. The Interior Design Show which is now in its 15th year and was recently purchased by Informa Canada Inc which also owns IDSWest, IIDEX, Art Toronto, One of a Kind Shows, Construct Canada, and the Real Estate Forums, has been at the centrepiece on which in the last 7 years this month of design exhibitions has been built. (I am wondering about changes the new ownership brings, they did extend the deadline for submission and dedicated space for both Studio North and Prototype sections which are for independent design rather then corporate mass production)

Known as Toronto Design Off Site Festival for the last 3 years  there are now over 40 exhibitions  that will showcasing the best in Canadian design at events across the city, from unexpected prototypes to immersive installations, January 21-27, 2013.

Visit the websites and start making plans to see Chairs

IDS 2012 the "Peacock" chair, these are made of DuPont™ Corian® solid surface. they have been working with designers and a fabricator named Bob Westcott, President of RJW Enterprises to explore the possibilities of this product

 Shadow {Chandelier} by Annie Tung and Brad Turner at MADE Toronto Offsite exhibition 2012

Nest by Kirsten White, Baltic Birch plywood, industrial felt in Capacity at Bookhou * 798 Dundas Street west, part of Do Design 2011,

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For a look at things i have seen over the past 5 years during the month of January check out these Facebook Albums

"design does Toronto 2013" You can follow my January 2013 Textile and Design Sightings on this facebook album
 

Toronto Comes Alive with Design the IDS 2012 and the Toronto Offsite Design Festival January 25- 30 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151200922445311.804924.890860310&type=1&l=5f8d019c0e

Toronto International design Festival 2011https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150394886210311.617672.890860310&type=1&l=1fe38ffb5b

Toronto International Design Festival 2010 https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.441832455310.374236.890860310&type=1&l=da08a7022a

Interior Design week in Toronto 2009 album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=213997&id=890860310&l=2d230a5020

Radiant Dark and IDS08 report can be seen on fQaroundtown Blog.

http://fibrequarterly.blogspot.com/2008/02/radient-night-openings-at-ids-08-and.html

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Elsewhere in Canada 

Manitoba

English vest from the 1650s Manitoba Crafts Museum and library collection 

Just a Needle and Thread: Embroidering in Manitoba
opens on January 23, 2013.

Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library

1B-183 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg, Manitoba
This exhibition has work from the community and will feature pieces from the museum collection. You can find out more about the show on their facebook page 

Quebec 

Montreal

 Since 1997, DIAGONALE has awarded the Prix du Centre des arts des fibres du Québec to students from Québec universities that offer programs in textile arts or visual arts. Professors from these institutions are asked to nominate a student who has demonstrated proficiency and creativity in the use of fibres within their art practice. The general objective of the Prix DIAGONALE is to increase awareness of fibres as an artistic discipline, and to promote its use within the teaching of visual arts. In order to encourage the emergence of new artists within this discipline, the prize is awarded to students at the bachelor of Fine Arts level and/or other art courses that address the creation of fibre-based work.  It seeks to encourage students who, either through their choice of materials, the techniques used, or the concepts put forward in their work, contribute to the valorization and recognition of fibres within contemporary art. The prize consists of a group exhibition at DIAGONALE featuring the work of each recipient. For many of these artists, exhibiting in a professional centre represents an important step toward the professionalization of their practice.

   This is award winner Sabrina Dufour with Lyne Girad from Diagonale Centre D'artistes at the opening of  En avril  at Concordia in Montreal April 2012  


Exposition des lauréats du Prix Diagonale

Myriam Dion (UQÀM)
Sabrina Dufour (Université Concordia)
Marine Mailhot (Université Laval)
Lydia Mestokosho-Paradis (UQÀC)

Diagonale
5455, rue de Gaspé, espace 203
Montréal, (QC)

January 12 - Feburary 2 2013
Opening le samedi 12 janvier à 14h

This a close up of In the "Corner of My Head" by Sabrina Dufour, 2012 papier et panneau secge / folded paper at "Out Of Place" Concordia Graduate exhibition at the Yellow Fish Gallery last April

Dahlia Milon At work on the Jacquard loom at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles in 2008 taken while I was there doing a workshop.

Dahlia Milon
February 6 to March 15, 2012 TRAMES, Montreal Center for Contemporary Textiles

– Opening on February 6

Exhibition of clothing-characters exploring the difference facets of death. 

 http://www.dahliamilon.com/

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There will be more going on then I am currently aware of but this is what I see on the horizon. meanwhile continuing at Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto

 Haute Couture Collection / Spring Summer 2011 - Dior by John Galliano. Commissioned by the ROM thanks to the generous support of the Louise Hawley Stone Charitable Trust. BIG TIME: took 500 hours to make; BIG SIZE: 175 metres of cloth; BIG EVENT: Last and most technically challenging collection by John Galliano for Christian Dior. photo: Joe Lewis

The ROM went "BIG" in the fall of 2012 with fashion and textiles , BIG runs until Fall 2013 in the
Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles and Costume, Level 4

The newest ROM exhibition showcases textiles and costume that, in their own remarkable way, are BIG … BIG in size, BIG in historical importance, BIG news, created by a BIG name, carry a BIG price tag, and so on.

Funky and unique, forty objects – both historical and contemporary – gathered from the ROM’s extensive collections showcase BIG from around the world. They range from Egyptian clothing to 18th- and 19th- century western costumes to 20th-century haute couture. Some have never before been on display.

There will a screening of the Making of the Dior Dress made from 175 metres of cloth as well as a panel looking at  Haute Couture "industry" later in the spring of 2013.

BIG is generously supported by the Burnham Brett Endowment for Textiles and Costume and The Dorothy Strelsin Foundation

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