fQaroundtown

Fiber PHILADELPHIA / The Other Philadelphia Story: A Prequel

2012-01-25T13:55:00.001-05:00

Judith James, “Erasure” stitched resist discharge, silk, cotton, stitching 17” x 25” 2008. photographer: Gross McCleaf Gallery Gen [image provided by authors]

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The Other Philadelphia Story: A Prequel submitted by Carol Westfall

Authors:
Joan Dreyer is an artist and writer living in Alexandria, Virginia.
Joan San Chirico is an artist and independent curator living in Toms River, New Jersey
Carol D. Westfall is an artist and writer living and working in Jersey City, New Jersey.

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During the spring of 2008, the city of brotherly love became a Mecca for fiber art enthusiasts. Artists, collectors, curators, and a curious public came to see, to learn, to enjoy what could be described as a cornucopia of visual delights.

A symposium at the University of the Arts entitled Materiality + Meaning coupled with an exhibition Contemporary Korean Fiber Art anchored the events, which ranged as far south as Delaware and Maryland and north to the Reading Museum in Pennsylvania that hosted the traveling Hot House exhibition from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. The breadth and scope of the gallery and museum exhibitions was awesome!

Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz, Cosmic Series, Knotted monofilament, gold leaf, 72” x 26” x 12”
2008, photographer: Chris Lawrence,

part of Beyond Boundaries : Contemporary Fiber Art curated by Bruce Hoffman at the Arthur Ross Gallery [image provided by authors]

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In early April, both the Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA) and the Surface Design Association (SDA) jointly sponsored the Breaking New Ground symposium in Wayne, Pennsylvania that was joined with other inspirational exhibitions. This symposium concluded what was a broad look at what the fiber art movement had achieved nationally and globally.

Let’s start this review with Center City Philadelphia and because there is so much to see and think about, we will try to be succinct and yet include as much as possible.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) hosted the William Kentridge Tapestries exhibition. The works, which were enormous in scale, were shown with “related collages, sculptures and etchings that suggest the visual and poetic thought processes informing all of Kentridge’s art”. These tapestries were woven in South Africa by trained weavers, spinners and dyers and are based on cartoons by the artist. There was a catalogue available.

Also, in the new Perelman Building, at the PMA, there was an exhibition featuring the work of three Philadelphia born designers including Ralph Rucci and James Galanos. (The Perelman Building now houses the Department of Costume and Textiles.) In the main Museum building, a hall Gallery on the first floor held works by John McQueen, Dona Look, and Katherine Westphal among others.

Rebecca Medel, The One, Linen, cotton, constructed, 10’ x 10’ x 10’, 1986. Collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Photographer: Chris Lawrence. part of Beyond Boundaries : Contemporary Fiber Art curated by Bruce Hoffman at the Arthur Ross Gallery [image provided by authors]

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At the University of the Arts, the two main galleries showed the work of contemporary Korean artists. Some of the works were incredibly impressive in scale. Shin-Ja Lee’s The Han River, a pictorial panel, which filled three walls in one gallery in a continuous sweep, measured approximately 342 feet! A powerful indictment of the Iraq war entitled A Letter from Iraq, 2006 was spellbinding in its quiet simplicity and stark realism. A wall of elongated fingers on dyed gloves by Kyoung-yeon Chang provided a note of fun in an otherwise serious show of thought-provoking installations.

Lori Moum, Form #3, 58” x 40”, Cotton sateen, hand dyed, shibori dyed, over dyed. Five panels machine quilted with a grid and then satin stitched together. Artist created colors, rayon thread, cotton batting. 2006, Photographer: Lori Moum [ image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements].

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Deidre Adams. Shades of White 48” x 48” Cotton fabrics, batting, acrylic paint. Machine pieced and quilted, hand painted. 2006 Photographer: Deidre Adams [ image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements].

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Snyderman-Works Sixth Biennial contained the work of 92 artists. Curator Bruce Hoffman and his team hung the pieces so that each work’s space was sufficient to show it to best advantage. Standing outside the two big front windows, one felt the impact of the varied works within the gallery. To the right, a grouping of black crows echoed the menace of Hitchcock’s bird film of the ‘50’s. This work Murder of Crows I-IX by Bryant Holsenbeck included one empty perch that led the viewer to think that one wise crow had already taken flight. The left window contained works of exquisite craftsmanship. The efforts of the human heart, hand and mind were artfully presented. Pieces by Dorothy Gill Barnes, Debora Muhl, Jo Stealey and Charissa Brock created a visual dialogue of perfection. These two windows exemplified two currents in American craft – concept and execution. Bruce Hoffman and his team received huge kudos for this presentation.

Sean Buffington, the new President of the University of the Arts, and Professor Warren Seelig were two of the people who opened the Materiality + Meaning symposium with remarks about the genesis of all the fiber art activity in Philadelphia. Miguel Corzo, the former President of the UA and Professor Seelig worked to extend and expand this event into the entire arts community in Philadelphia. All three gentlemen received the gratitude of participants as well as viewers for the wondrous festival of fiber art that they created.

In his remarks, Professor Seelig celebrated the human condition and the role that fiber and fibrous materials play in every day lives in all cultures. We’ve entered a new technologically driven era with a revived sense of what is truly important to all mankind. The greening or sustainability of materials and the importance of the natural world to man’s future are vital concerns that affect everyone.

When introducing the keynote speaker, Professor Gerhardt Knoedel, Professor Seelig paid homage to his former teacher and mentor and acknowledged Professor Knoedel’s pivotal past roles as educator at and President of Cranbrook Academy of Art.

Gerhardt Knoedel was a superb speaker. With the assistance of film clips from Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Like Water for Chocolate, American Beauty and the dancing of Ginger Rodgers and Fred Astaire, Gerhardt deftly guided his audience into new ways of thinking, seeing and absorbing visual information avenues towards knowing something fully. The inch–by-inch meditations that are integral to many of the modes of creation in the fiber arts came clearly to mind as Professor Knoedel spoke.

Sample Board w/

Sample Collection: Susie Brandt machine stitching and various materials; 1995-2007, Collection of the Artist. Custom Embroidery Samples; Hyman Embroidery Works, Philadelphia, 1930’s-1960’s; cotton, wool, silk, beads, ribbon, etc. Collection of The Design Center at Philadelphia University.

Sample Board from Susie Brandt: Rummage The Design Center Philadelphia University

Photos by Aaron Igler [image provided by Authors]

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Professor Mi-Kyoung Lee moderated the second day of the symposium which included lectures by an American, Lydia Mathews and a Canadian, Sandra Alfoldy, two curators who spoke of the physicality and natural qualities of fibrous materials and in certain contexts, the importance at this point in man’s existence on this planet, in caring for the globe. Ms. Mathews highlighted the work of Fritz Haeg whose Edible Estates clearly expressed the ideal use of land – no more green, water gobbling expanses of lawns but rather sustainable gardens planted around suburban houses. There would be flowers but most importantly, these gardens would feature edible plants in an artistic, visually pleasing pattern. It should be noted that one of Mr. Haeg’s Estates was included in the 2008 Whitney Biennial.

In the afternoon session, Professor Lee introduced several Korean artists who added their concerns and comments to the contemporary art being created in Korea. Like the Japanese in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s, a strong Korean presence can be felt at the University of the Arts, Yale and Cranbrook as well as other highly regarded institutions with strong interest in the techniques, concepts and materials of the fiber world.

Astrid Hilger Bennett Shostakovich Series 57” w x42” h All fabrics hand painted, monoprinted by the artist. 2007 Photographer: Astrid Hilger Bennett [ image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements].

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Bus trips were available to the conference participants who were interested in visiting some of the many galleries and sites of fiber exhibitions throughout Philadelphia and the surrounding area. The 2012 FiberPhiladelphia will also offer bus trips to all the current exhibition sites.

Kai Chan, Spider’s Logic (Paris Diary), Installation at Liao Collection, Philadelphia, Pa. 95cm. x 415cm. x 4cm. plastic shopping bags, cotton cloth, thread 2004 part of Mirage: New work by Kai Chan curated by Micheal Dunas, March 5-9 2008

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Let’s take a survey of the 2008 exhibitions that will give us a good idea of the upcoming 2012 exhibits.

7 Visions: Wood as Fiber at the Wood Turning Center gave a slightly different twist to fiber compared to the other shows. Here wood and the combination of wood with fiber techniques were well explored in a variety of ways.

The Beyond Boundaries: Contemporary Fiber Art exhibition, curated by Bruce Hoffman at the Arthur Ross Gallery, contained works by six well known artists. On entering this show, the Cosmic Series by Yvonne Pacanovsky Bobrowicz was mesmerizing. Knitted monofilament coupled with gold leaf create surfaces, which were both tantalizing and sensuous. An extraordinary work entitled The One by Rebecca Medel was recently taken into the permanent collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. This powerful and serene work spoke eloquently to a mystic center where one finds spirituality, unity and the light of perception.

At the Crane Building, Libbie Soffer installed her exhibition entitled traces. In these works, fiber became a metaphor for life’s journey – the passages and chapters, the ups and downs – those happenings that make each human being a unique element in the chain of life.

The Nexus gallery presented the work of eight young artists working in fiber: Atik, Gross, Dyhouse, Koziol, Landes, Lee, Perot and Shaffer look at the world through totally different lenses. Their work – refreshing and unique – created a cohesive totality despite their differing sensibilities.

On the same floor, the Borgenicht and Pontz exhibition – a collaboration linking metal, clay and fiber and utilizing aspects of the original building like two old floor urinals was great fun to explore. Both artists present a visually arresting array of disparate objects, which relate harmoniously and yet are deliciously deviant. Looking at a wall hanging by Ms. Borgenicht, the viewer perceived the deceptive quality of what appears to be a kind of cloth, which is easily touched and moved. However, the truth lies within the basic structure of ceramic modules, which comprise the piece. These elements will respond like cloth – folding and moving - but only in the sense that they are each distinct and separate elements and only in the interlinking do they become whole cloth.

The Philadelphia Fabric Workshop advertised Ed Ruscha: Industrial Strength as its contribution to the fiber festival. The work at the gallery is only in its prototype form, which, quite unusual for fiber could be touched. Mr. Ruscha’s magnificent painting was being woven by a tapestry works in Belgium and had not yet been completed in time for the fiber extravaganza.

Maggie Weiss Iris, 60” w x72”h Hand dyed torn edged silk background overlaid with commercial and hand dyed fused silk fabrics. Machine quilted and bound using rayon and cotton threads. 2007 Photographer: Paul Lane [image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements]

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Art Quilt Elements, then in its eighth year, had grown from Art Quilts at the Sedgwick into a new venue in Wayne, Pennsylvania and a new biennial schedule. With 68 artists exhibiting, the show filled both large gallery spaces of the newly renovated Wayne Art Center.

Some standouts included:

-Lori Moum was the winner of the Surface Design Association Award. Her Form #3 resembled hand woven Ikat fabric but was constructed with rows of satin stitch used imaginatively for texture on a predominantly blue shibori-dyed background thus transforming the surface with stitches.

- Astrid Hilger Bennett’s music-inspired Shostakovich Series, with its rich texture on red, incorporated wide brush strokes and kept negative space to depict the silence between imagined musical notes.

- Iris by Maggie Weiss, who won the Fiberarts Magazine Award, depicted an illusion of three-dimensional irises with a delicate decorative quality.

- Quietly Red by Terry Jarrard-Dimond also used intentional blank space in her red minimal design delineated with stitching which altered the color of the panels.

Terry Jarrard-Dimond Quietly Red 81.5” w x 46.5” h Machine pieced from 100% cotton fabric, dyed and machine quilted with cotton thread. Cotton backing and batting.2007 Photographer: Tom Dimand [image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements]

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Joan Sowada Cosmic Bicycle 60x35 Commercial and Setacolor hand painted fabrics, fused, machine apliquéd and quilted. 2005,Photographer: David Nicholas [image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements]

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-Another representational piece, actually a diptych, stood out.Joan Sowada’s Cosmic Bicycle with its amazing perspective of shadows of bike racers was fascinating- Kim Eichler-Messmer’s Barren with its screen-printed large rabbit containing a womb full of smaller rabbits could be interpreted in many ways. Did it suggest that the multiplying bunnies are a parallel to the artist’s family or as based on the title, is the opposite true?

- Jill Ault’s Pods were created in translucent silks and shibori giving the work a quiet elegance.

- Sharon Bell’s Waterwords rendered in black letters on white background in vertical rows gave the illusion of droplets of water, with just a slight red edge of the backing fabric showing on the sides.

- Another monochrome piece was Barbara Watler’s Ontario Quest 3 in which black and white tree silhouettes suggest a windless, cloudy winter day.

- Linda Colsh’s Drift was quiet and elegant with its unforced use of techniques.

- Deidre Adams Shades of White revealed wondrous texture formed by first stitching and then painting which created hills and valleys of subdued color that showed though the white overcoat.

- Noreen Wallworth’s The Spaces Between was constructed of a kaleidoscopic array of tiny colored squares. Manically pieced during a difficult time in the artist’s life, the white depicts the good times while the 200 intricately combined blocks of color depict the bad.

Kim Eichler-Messmer, Barren 35” x62” Hand dyed and screen printed cotton, discharged, appliquéd, embroidered, pieced, quilted 2007, Photographer: Aaron Paden [image courtesy of Art Quilt Elements]

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This was the first joint conference by the Surface Design Association and the Studio Art Quilt Associates. The opening reception was held in conjunction with a five-day symposium offering a tour of the many fiber related exhibits in Philadelphia as well as lectures and workshops. Shortly after registration was opened to the membership, all related events were filled and many were relegated to a waiting list. Despite some inevitable problems in managing a conference of this size for the first time, many attendees expressed their satisfaction that the two organizations had banded together to attempt such an undertaking. The symposium planned for spring 2012 is entitled Identity: Context and Reflection and is comprised of lectures and panel discussions, tours of exhibitions and workshops.

All of us – artists, curators, and the curious art going public owe a great debt of gratitude to those individuals who turned this Philadelphia event into an extraordinary fiber art extravaganza. Sometimes wonderful things happen when one person takes a great idea and shares that idea with a few other knowledgeable individuals. That is what happened in Philadelphia during the spring of 2008.

Now, in the winter of 2012, Philadelphia is preparing yet another extraordinary series of fiberart events under the banner of FiberPhiladelphia 2012. Having experienced the first celebration, there is no doubt that this second endeavor may well out do the first and certainly reaffirms Philadelphia’s foremost place as arbiter of fiber arts!

FiberPhiladelphia 2012’s calendar of Events, Exhibitions, Shows, Receptions and Lectures can be downloaded from the website

for more information contact john@FiberPhiladelphia.org

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The Other Philadelphia Story: A Prequel

Bibliography

Basualdo, Carlos, Editor, William Kentridge Tapestries New Haven and London, Philadelphia Museum of Art and Yale University Press, 2008

Contemporary Korean Fiber Exhibition (catalog), Philadelphia, The University of the Arts, 2008

Courtney, Julie (Introduction), Portfolio Collection #32: Susie Brandt, Bristol, Telos, 2004

Hot House; Expanding the Field of Fiber at Cranbrook, 1970-2007, Bloomfield Hills, Cranbrook Art Museum, 2007

Hung, Shu and Magliaro, Joseph, Editors, By Hand, the Use of Craft in Contemporary Art, New York, Princeton Architectural Press, 2007

Livingstone, Joan and Ploof, John, Editors,The Object of Labor; Art, Cloth and Cultural Production, Chicago and Cambridge, School of the Art Institute Press and The MIT Press, 2007

McFadden, David Revere, Pricked; Extreme Embroidery, New York, Museum of Arts and Design, 2007

Middlebrook, Nancy, catalog published 2007 with fellowship from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

Tellier-Loumagne, Francois, The Art of Embroidery; Inspirational Stitches, Textures and Surfaces, London, Thames and Hudson, 2006

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Sonya Clark Curls, Plastic Variable size 2007 photographer: DCCA

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Toronto Comes Alive With Design

2012-01-23T02:48:00.000-05:00

Photo: Sean Martindale Project,

Come Up To My Room? January 26 to January 29, 2012

Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

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The end of January can be a dim dark cold time of year in the northern hemisphere and we tend to stay indoors unless of course there is a reason not to. In Toronto there is a reason not to. While the International Design Show which first opened its doors in 1999 is now at the centre piece around which the Toronto Design Offsite Festival has been built. TODO festival showcases Canadian design in a variety of forms at numerous venues.

Dawn McNutt, Apple, woven copper and brass wire. Gift of Tibor Gregor. Photo: K. Jennifer Bedford

While the IDS opens on January 26th a few days before the annual exhibition Select Works:Cambridge Galleries Contemporary Canadian Textile-Based Collection opens on January 24 6:30 pm with Remarks: 7 pm at Design at Riverside 7 Melville Street South, Cambridge Ontario and runs until February 19, 2012. While the Cambridge Galleries have run the Biennial Juried exhibition FIBREWORKS since the late 1980 from which many of these pieces have been acquired.

Sylvia Kind, "9 impossibly small sweaters", 2007, Knit wool, zippers, buttons, Various dimensions.
Purchased by the Cambridge Galleries for their permanent collection during fibreworks 2008, photo by Joe Lewis


Andrew Smith ( Cambridge, On) standing with his piece "Veil: From Following Desire", 1984, paper pulp painting , 259 x 122 cm. added to the collection in 1989 photo Joe Lewis taken at Selections..2010

You can follow the Cambridge Galleries on their facebook page

You can see more photographs taken by me in the following facebook Albums

April 2, 2011 at the Cambridge Galleries Anna Torma & Selections

Fibreworks | FABRICcation | Knit camBRIDGE expect the unexpected

fibreworks 2008

You can read more about the Sections From the Permanent Collection 2010 in my "fibre report" column in A Needle Pulling Thread Fall 2010

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Toronto Design Offsite Festival is over 20 exhibitions, showcases, hosted walking tours and Deign Talks happening in Toronto for a list of times and locations visit the official website Events Listings page.The concept of a Hosted Tour has changed this year phone apps and QR -codes will be ever present you can get your free TODO i-phone app now at the apple apps store. You can follow your friends who are in Toronto through their tweets and facebook sharing or you can have the experience live. I will be attending as many of these events as I can (with a slight handicap in that i don't have a cell phone, let alone an i phone , I am very old fashioned)

Here is a selection of shows i will definitely get to either during the press previews or visits after or before the "Opening" parties which are scattered across, time so there are one or more to attend every night of the festival and Saturday and Sunday afternoon. You can spend your time seeing people and totally miss out on the Design. With some advanced planing you can do both. If you are planning to get to some of the talks get their early so you can get a seat. If you have not attended before you will be amazed by the numbers of people this 'festival" is becoming an international attraction. Last year I was slightly horrified to hear three people from Italy being outraged by the high price of admission to Museums in Toronto having just come from a visit to the ROM. Considering it is € 9.10 to get into the
UffiziI would say that is about even.

fQ Picks

STITCHES: Suzhou Fast Forward. A show that features seven pieces of hand-crafted Suzhou embroidery from China and six contemporary works by invited architects, artists, and designers which has been running since October is part of the festival. Both the show and the space where it is located need to be seen and or discovered by a larger audience.

"WORKshop is an experimental design centre located on the concourse level of 80 Bloor Street West in Yorkville, Toronto's luxury shopping district. The centre was launched in February 2010 to further the visionary design work of Hong Kong-based Kin Yeung whose approach establishes reciprocity between design traditions and excellence spawned in China over many centuries and today's contemporary urban life styles in both the East and the West"

1066 Dundas Street West Opening Reception: Saturday, January 28, 3-8 PM

Another exhibition I am looking forward to seeing is “CAPACITY” is an annual exhibit of new work by female, Canadian designers, curated by Katherine Morley, Erin McCutcheon and Ange-line Tetrault. It will be presented in January 2012 at Bev Hisey Studio (1066 Dundas Street West, at Shaw). The exhibition will feature a wide range of media (ceramic, textile, furniture, product design, illustration and more) that will examine and express the word “capacity” as it relates to the role of women in the field of design. Last years show at Bookhou * 798 Dundas Street West was an interesting mix of concept pieces like: Michelle Invankovic's "Maker Sofa", 12 fitness Balls held together by fabric exoskeleton Velvet, with Brass rivets and PCV which I was given the opportunity to try out/ sit on, was a mix of awkward but possibly comfortable fun. It was kind of silly yet smart design in its attempt to re-purpose those quickly out of style over produce exercise balls.

Michelle Invankovic Maker Sofa, 12 fitness Balls held together by fabric exoskeleton Velvet, Brass and PCV in Capacity at Bookhou * 798 Dundas Street West Jan. 26 until Feb. 6, 2011, photo by Joe Lewis

Bev Hisey " plaster and lath" carpet at R.A.D. * 899 Dundas Street west part of Do Design : Thursday, January 27 to Sunday, January 30, 2011, along Dundas Street West between Bathurst and Grace Street

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When is Come Up To My Room. January 26 to January 29, 2012

2010 CUTMR Room 211 Lisa Keophila / Jon Margong/ Fiona Lim Tung and Kristen Lim Tung have suspended a canopy of cut paper object over a mattress and pillow on which you are welcome to lie and imagine.

Untitled wire work by Scot Eunson in the Art Bar at the Gladstone Hotel 1214 Queen Street West, part of Come Up to My Room. January 27- 30 2011

While Come Up to My Room started as an alternative almost parody of the Interior Design show it quickly became something better then that. While it is still a mixed bag of concepts and products it has become a laboratory and I am looking froward to see what the [R]ed[U]x Lab: Ryerson University Architectural Science Design Lab will install. Each year since 2009, Come Up To My Room curators have worked with professor Elizabeth English and visited to the University of Waterloo School of Architecture to select three to five chairs from their Chair Project.

Foot stool with hand printed upholstery by

Designer/ printer Emanuelle Dion

This reminds me of one of my pet peeves about design education in Canada, while some schools have both textile and furniture design course I have yet to see a prototype of an upholsterer piece of furniture come from one of those schools. Emanuelle Dion who studied at surface design at the Cegep du Vieux Montreal: Centre Design & Impressions Textile Montreal has presented her company Foutu Tissu and its printed textile furniture at the One Of A Kind Show in Toronto.

This very tailored version of a wing back chair is from 608 Design by Evan Bart. the "Annex" is made of plywood, soy based foam, wool, walnut, 27" w X 32" D X 44" High. it was shown in Radiant Dark 2010- Assets & Values, photo: Joe Lewis

Radient Dark: the Devil is in the Details 859 Dundas St. West (4 doors east of MADE) Opening Reception | Saturday, January 28, 3 – 7 PM

" For better or worse, details affect every moment of the design process from idea to creation, to using and appreciating an object. Julie Nicholson and Shaun Moore of MADE continue to introduce new Canadian designs through their evolving Radiant Dark series with the 2012 theme — the Devil is the Details."

A selection of furnishings from Made At Home January 27 to February 12th 2011

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Do Design
Opening Reception | Saturday, January 28, 3 – 8 PM
Guided Tour | Sunday, January 29, 2 – 3 PM (meeting point TBA)
Exhibition Hours | Varies according to venue
Do Design highlights design culture in a vibrant neighborhood during Toronto design week. Bringing together contemporary design works from over 30 individuals working across many disciplines, the free, four day event is presented by the Trinity Bellwoods Business Area and reaches along Dundas Street West from Bathurst to Grace Streets.

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What is the role of community-engaged art and design in sustainable urban development?

This is a view from my balcony and one of the reasons I left a warehouse studio in the Queen and Spadina in 1989. The street running towards downtown is Oak Street, over the past eight years many of the four story public housing complexes in the Regents Park have been torn down and are being replaced with condo towers. While this redevelopment of what was Toronto's first Public Housing project in 1958 has displaced or rather redistributed a population that while living below or on the edge of the poverty are far from the drug addled violent exclusivity non white population the media has often portrayed as. I my experience violence and drug abuse happen everywhere regardless of ethnic origins or income level. As some of displaced and other selected low income people are being rehoused in the neighborhood at 40 Oak Street a design project with hints of William Morris has been organized the results of which will be exhibited during TODO.

"In the City"one shot comic published in City Magazine Volume 11, no 1, Summer/fall 1989

Morris once said “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful” Public Displays of Affection for 40 Oaks is an exhibition of over 100 pieces of sustainable, designer one-of-a-kind furniture, lighting and installations donated to a community in need, created by local designers and local community members. The custom designed furnishings were created by local design gurus such as Brothers Dressler, Studio Junction, Rob Southcott, Parimal Gosai, MADE, Kathryn Walter and over 28 more professional designers and students.

Opening Reception: Friday, January 27, 2012 | 6-10pm
PDA for 40 Oaks Talks: Sunday January 29, 2012 | 1pm-2:30pm
Panelists: Ken Greenberg, Zahra Ebrahim, Janna Levitt and Remo Agostino Moderator: David Dick-Agnew
Exhibition Hours: Saturday, January 28 and Sunday, January 29, 2012 | Daily 1-6pm

you can find out more about this project at the Public Displays of Affection website

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International Design Show 2012

DesignGenNext showcases the cutting-edge work of the industrial design and craft students from Canada’s top schools.IDS 11 participating institutions included: Ryerson University, Humber College, George Brown College (Institute Without Boundaries), Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD), and Sheridan College.

At IDS 12, visit DesignGenNext in their new home in Offsite/Onsite on main level of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre.

"XY "by Haniyeh Khosravi Fard is made of simple metal shelving parts and two colours of cord. part of the OCAD University IDS 2011 display

Sheridan students, Simone Rauscher's "Mouse Meat" this badly tilted piece had a certain charm.
Tea dyed unbleached cotton embroidered with polyester thread

"IDS 12 marks the 10th anniversary of Studio North. Exclusive to IDS, this show within a show was introduced to support Canada’s vibrant and independent design scene featuring ateliers and designer-makers from coast to coast. The showcase now features 60 Canadian and International designers exhibiting one-off and custom collections of furniture, lighting, glass, ceramics, textiles, and surface design in a gallery-like installation. Studio North has evolved into one of the most anticipated annual exhibit a of design CanCon for design industry, media and a discerning design audience"

from show website

Also celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Prototype exhibit features works not currently in production by independent designers, who address the theme of innovative consumer products intended for mass production.

IDS 20011, New Carribean Design: Guyana wai wai baskets which is another of enterprising designer Patty Johnson international collaborations. the most recent was working with west coast and northern interior aboriginal artisans which was presented last fall at the Queen Quay Gallery at Harbourfront. This one is with Liana Cain and Shu Shu Kaywe –the oldest master weaver in the Guyanese community

You can find out more about the Interior Design Show at their website.

This is from "The Chair Source" the model is the "Black Nior Chair" it was a prop/ accessory in the Eurolite booth #1010 IDS 2011

Blog postings

What the Well Dressed Chair is Wearing This Year: IDS 2011 kicks off

"Stag" (Wall Hanging) by Grant Heaps, 2,200 1"square pieces of cloth, opening night February 4 2009, Made presents Radiant Dark 09 Elegant Corruptions

You can see images from past shows in my face book Albums

Toronto International Design Festival, 2011

Toronto International Design Festival 2010

Interior Design week in Toronto 2009

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October 28 - November 28 Textile Agenda

2011-10-27T02:32:00.001-04:00

Dorothy Caldwell In Place: new landscapes

September 29 - October 30, 2011

David Kaye Gallery
1092 Queen Street West
(entrance on Dovercourt)
Toronto, Ontario M6J 1H9

It is that time of year again in Toronto. The Fall season is up and running. there is a few days left to do yourself a favour and go and see Dorothy Caldwell's recent work at David Kaye Gallery before hitting the TIAF.

The Toronto International Art Fair (TIAF) October 28th through 31 will have a number of textiles to view as always and finding them is easier if you are looking for them. Have faith even if the current art market like every thing else is feeling the "Current Economic Pinch" there are a number of art dealers who represent and stand behind a number of amazing textile based makers and artist whose careers are built on their use of textiles.

Here an eager young "Sales Clerk" welcomes you to "Everything Must Go" wearing an apron by An Te Lui "Distribution of the Unsaleable" 2010, workers apron in embroidered denim, one of three models, each in a limited edition of 37.

Last years special project Everything Must Go was in intriguing and entertaining commentary on the fine arts market place curated by fashion designer Jeremy Laing. Of this years four special projects The Art Game by Kent Monkman curated by Steven Loft promises to entertain even if you don't know his work. If you do and wonder what textiles have to do with his work I would argue that his use of costume in performance, photography, painting to play with stereotypes and debunk the status-quo wouldn't work half as well if every body was naked and leave it at that.

Over the past 5 years I have looked forward to seeing certain galleries such as Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery London/New York www.r-h-g.co.uk who have introduced the Toronto public to the paper college work of Peter Clark, the subtlety shocking crocheted work of artist designer Kate Jenkins. Donya Coward who does elaborate embellished textile piece work and Australian artist David Bromley a painter who embroiders portions of his work.

Inside the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery Booth at the TIAF Oct 4-6 2008

Peter Clark Sunny Side, Mixed Media, 2007, 135 x 82 cm (53.1 x 32.3 ins)

While closer to home Art Mûr from Montreal, who in 2009 brokered the sale of Cal Lane's Oil Drum piece to the Art Gallery of Ontario and in 2010 introduced Toronto to the taxidermy work of French contemporary Surrealist artist Sarah Garzoni will be at this years event.

Tufted Pig and Topodermie 2003 digitally printed garments Images are close up details of human flesh, nipples, hair, moles and scares. this photo was taken at the gallery in Montreal during Sarah Garzoni : Corps étranger January 8 - February 26, 2011 (read about this show in febuary 2010 blog post http://fibrequarterly.blogspot.com/2011/02/montreal-1102-2011-sarah-garzoni-corps.html
[don't look for a French to English translation of Topodermie it is Topography and Taxidermy squished together ]

Cal Lane Plasma Cut Steel Oil Drums, 2008 photographed at the 2009 TIAF

Cal Lane , whose work has been seen in Toronto several times, I first encounter her in the group show Frey the co- curated exhibition at the Koffler Centre and Textile Museum of Canada which I reviewed for the British magazine Selvedge [issue no.14] You can read about her recent site specific lace inspired out door steel sculpture "1,000 Gallon Oil Drum " created for "Lace in Translation" exhibition at the Design Center at Philadelphia University in the recent issue fiberARTS magazine Nov/Dec 2009.

that is just a quick look at the TIAF the opening night party is in less then 18 hours away.
to see photographs of what was happening at last years TIAF check out my facebook album
TIAF October 28, 2010

bunnies by Yshia Wallace Image fro Gladstone website

upArt Contemporary Art Fair

Thurs Oct 27 to Sun Oct 30, 2011
Gladstone Hotel
1214 Queen Street West, Toronto

OTTAWA

"Tapestries"
Thoma Ewen, Krystyna Sadej, (from Canada)
Ewa Bartosz Mazus, from Poland
Thomas Cronenberg (American living in Germany

October 28 to November 30 2011
City of Ottawa, the Centrepointe Theatre Gallery,
101 Centrepointe Drive
Ottawa, On

The City of Ottawa will host an artist talk "Textile Art in Europe Today"
by Thomas Cronenberg from Germany on Thursday, October 27, 2011 at 7pm. (Room 1A in the Ben Franklin Place complex, 101 Centrepointe Drive)

CAMBRIDGE

Lyn Carter, Model for Columna. Photo: Peter Legris.

Lyn Carter: Columna
November 05 - January 08, 2012
Cambridge Galleries Queen’s Square
1 North Square, Cambridge, ON N1S 2K6

Opening Reception: Saturday, November 5 at 2:30 pm
Artist Talk: Saturday, December 10, 2:30 pm

Toronto

Amanda McCavour
Lot #25
Friendship Chair
Polyester/cotton blend bias tape, polyester/cotton fabric

Thursday November 3 at 6:30 pm at the Gladstone Hotel the Textile Museum of Canada presents reDesign 2011 a gala evening and silent auction in support of the Textile Museum of Canada

Amanda McCavour, Lot #25,

Using friendship bracelet making and how I used to use this as a way to pass the time as a starting point, I chose to re-design the Textile Museum’s waiting room chair with variations of friendship bracelet patterns using larger bias tape instead of the traditional embroidery floss. Utilizing half hitch knots and braiding to cover the upholstered surfaces of the chair, I hope this piece would reference the repetitive act of making these bracelets and the sentiment of giving these bracelets to someone else.

If you like this you can view more of the Chairs that have been re-designed a who's who of Canadian design craft and arts on line at the TMC website re-design 2011

Swag, 2010 by Barbara Sutherland

Hard Twist 6 – Obsession, Annual Juried Show Of Textile-Based Art
Opening Reception: Fri Nov 25, 2011 6pm-9pm
Exhibition Dates: Nov 25, 2011 – Jan 29, 2012 12pm-5pm Daily

2011 JURORS:
Mary Sue Rankin – Director, Edward Day Gallery
Judith Tinkl, Artist, retired Associate Professor OCAD, Past President OCC
Angela Iarocci – Artist/Designer and Educator
Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell – Hard Twist Curators

to see some images from last years Hard Twist see my facbook album

One of A Kind Christmas 2010, Hard Twist, at the Gladstone, Holiday Sales,

Live from the from the Kaunas Biennial part two: Down and out of minutes in Kaunas and London

2011-10-14T17:06:00.000-04:00


I stop in London on my way to Lithuania, see Big Ben

Down and out of minutes in Kaunas and London

Imagine a world with no internet access and no credit cards. Hour 38 of stop and go walk through the airport to another check in desk travel. As I sit beside a PHOTO-Me booth with my computer plugged in and recharging at Heathrow Airport having just missed my flight home to Canada which left from Gatwick I ponder these things. Since I must wait for others with credit cards to rescue me I write. I slouch on the marble floor which brings back memories of the Austrian ETN meeting in 2009 and the marble floors of the Vienna airport,( which I did spend three hours in yesterday but that is a different story for another time) and think, go outside for a smoke and think. Thinking is an interesting process fueled by accumulated experiences, years of bits and pieces of information some recalled correctly others not, instinct and millions of other things that have been brought into our brains throw eyes, ears, hands, language, written words piles of stuff that keeps passing into it. Thinking is just reorganizing the clutter and perhaps putting it into the file cabinet hopefully to of use at some later date. But I digress which is nothing new.

Having arrived at Gatwick airport on September 16^th for a brief stay with a friend her husband and 8 month old daughter, while on my way to Kaunas Lithuania for the opening of the Kaunas Biennial Textile 11 and European Textile Network s 16^th biannual conference I had been thinking about repackaging this experience in terms of a travel article along with the review and reports about the event I will write for my own publication and pitch to others. This could be the travel piece.

(to be continued )

This is a statue of a cat in the centre of the pedestrian boulevard that runs through the centre of the "Old Town" of Kaunas. It is one of the most charming Cat sculptures I have ever seen. It was hard to photograph because there where always little kids on it, riding , flying dancing or where ever this magical cat seem to take them

So this is not so live it is hard to go to a conference and write about while your attending it. but I have managed to get some Images with info up on facebook if you care to look

facebook albums featuring my bad photos from the Kaunas Biennial

THE KAUNAS BIENNIAL September 22, 2011 People and places

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150817076125311.743835.890860310&type=1&l=855ed8f97f

Exhibitions in Lithuania September 2011

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150827902020311.746302.890860310&type=1&l=a1ca4fd661

Kaunas, 2011 more people and places

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150820775500311.744635.890860310&type=1&l=6eed4aaea9

Historic Lithuania

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150839519220311.749020.890860310&type=1&l=a5831b4b47

This is the M. Žilinskas Art Gallery, Nepriklausomybės a. 12, where the main exhibition is mounted

Up and Coming Exhibition

FIBREMEN

October 18 - 29, 2011, Kherson, Ukraine

I am one of the 39 men from 14 countries that are included in this exhibition being put on "Scythia Textile" organization in the Ukraine

Reflections on The Man in the Moon, © Joe Lewis 2010,

Jacquard Woven Textile

Dimensions (cm.) 142. cm High x 48.26 cm wide, Materials & technique: six colour repeated cotton, woven with a two colour weft; black and white, jacquard woven textile

__________________________________________

live from THE KAUNAS BIENNIAL

2011-09-15T14:43:00.000-04:00

As I am getting ready to head off to Kaunas, Lithuania for the 2011 European Textile Network's symposium and the Kaunas Biennial TEXTILE’11 I thought I would just take quick look back at the textile conferences and symposiums I have been to in the past few years.

Sitting on a wall at Kuntst University in Linz watching boats on the Danube waiting to get on a bus to go to Haslach, Austria Austria for the 2009 Europe Textile Network. which took place at Textile Centre Haslach photo by Della Reams Public Relations Manager for the Surface Design Association
-----------------------------------------
In January 2009 I attended Inspired design: Jacquard and Entrepreneurial Textiles. at Blue Ridge Community College, Hendersonville, North Carolina, USA, which was organized by the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design There for the first time I met Beatrijs Sterk the Secretary of the ETN and publisher of Textile Forum magazine and Vibeke Vestby of Digital Weaving Norway developers of the TC1 Loom and board member of the Europe Textile Network, among others.


Tim Perry-Williams, presentation in the Blue Ridge Community College lecture hall, photo: Dian Magi

Clothing made from Tim Parry- Williams' textiles woven in Japan and used by designers involved with Livingstone Studio, London, photo by JL

Left to right: Christina Leitner from the Textile Kultur Haslach in Austria, Vibeke Vestby of Digital Weaving Norway developers of the TC1 Loom and board member of the Europe Textile Network, to my right is Beatrijs Sterk the Secretary of the ENT and publisher of Textile Forum magazine. we are standing in the classroom at the Jacquard Center, also in Hendersonville, photo by: Stephan Michelson,

you can read about Inspired Design in fQ Volume 5 Issue 2/ Spring 2009 -
-------------------------------------------

The clock tower, chiming every fifteen minutes and meeting the church bells on the hour where part of the charm of Upper Austria

next stop the European Textile Association’s 15th biannual Conference: “Revival of Old Textile Centres: a new future for training” Wednesday, July 22 until Friday July 24, 2009. Haslach was a charming old town in a region with a long with a long history of textile making that is laying claim to a future with them. My attending the 2009 conference was supported by a Travel grant from the Canada Arts Council. With a few days of pre-conference things to do in Vienna I took a bunch of photographs and posted facebook albums after I returned.

leaving the MAK: Museum of Applied Kuntz [arts] Vienna left to right, Julia Astreou-Chirstoforou from Cyprus, Philippa Brock, from Brittan, Lise Frølund from Denmark and Dianna Springall from Brittan

see more photo's from Vienna i fb Albums
ETN 2009 Conference in Austria

webermarket 2009, Textile Kulture Haslach

Buildings I saw in Austria and had to photograph

Barbara Girardi Feltmaker, designer, coordinator of 'Le Arti Tessili Association' and 'Valcellina Award' from Udine, Italy and myself checking out the weekend textile market in Haslach which has run since 1640.
_____________________

http://www.bienale.lt/2011/

What can I say with a few days before and after I will be in Kaunas for 10 days and try to keep you posted and up to date on what is happening .Here is a breakdown of the schedule for the first four days, the Bienale is just beginning it Runs for three months

schedule September 21-25

meeting at the Textile Department of the Vilnius Art Academy (VVA, Malunu St. 5) with an introduction of the textile education programme and textile art projects by Prof Eglė Bogdanienė.
12.00 – 12.45 h Visit "Fresh Textile" exhibition of VVA students at the VVA Exhibition Center (Maironio St 3)
13.00 – 14.00 h Lunch at the canteen of the Academy
14.15 – 14.45 h Visit "Textile Stories" exhibition Sv. Jono Gallery (Sv. Jono St.)
15.00 – 15.30 h Visit of the Anastasija &Antanas Tamosaitis Textile Museum (Gaono St.)
15.30 – 16.00 h Visit the exhibition "Stitch System" by Inga Likšaitė at the VAA Gallery "Artifex" (Gaona St. 1) 16.00 – 18.00 h Visiting Pilies and Didzioji St. (old town), the Old Town in Vilnius is said to be the most beautiful in Lithania
18.00 h Opening of the Intl. Mini Textile Exhibition "Vamish/Survive" at Gallery ARKA, Ausros Vartu g. 7 street)

Louise Lemieux Bérubé. will have a solo exhibition as one of the satellite exhibitions happening in Vilnius THE FLIGHT. 2009. Handwoven Jacquard: tencel, stainless steel, copper, linen, wool. 158 x 145 cm. Pictured: choregraph Sarah Chase; art director – Kathy Casey, Montréal Danse; photograph of choregraphy and textile artwork: Louise Lemieux Bérubé.

CONFERENCE PROGRAMME

Friday, 23 September

9 – 9.30 h	Registration (location 1)
9.30 h	Welcome address Dr. Virginija Vitkienė and by Lala de Dios, President of ETN
10 h	Start of the Session „Rewind into the Future“
	How to empower textile culture for the future, why is it important and what is left to be done for the upcoming generation (see Short Notes on the Speakers)
9.30 h	Introduction: Beatrijs Sterk and Laima Oržekauskienė, Lithuania
10 h	Reiko Sudo, Japan
10.20 h	Chunghie Lee, South Korea
10.40 h	Cynthia Schira, USA
11.10 h	Lia Cook, USA
11.30 - 12 h	Coffee break
12 h	Louise Lemieux Bérubé, Canada
12.20 - 12.40 h	Sarah Braddock Clarke/Marie O'Mahony, UK
12.40 - 14 h	Lunch / exhibition opening (location 1 ): Reiko Sudo
14 h	Diana Springall, UK
14.20 h	Paulina Ortiz, Costa Rica & Máximo Laura, Peru
14.50 h	Candace Edgerley & Carolyn Kallenborn, USA
15.20 h	Anne Wanner, Switzerland
15.40 h	Vibeke Vestby, Norway
16 - 16.20 h	Coffee break
16.20 h	Ludmila Egorova /Andrew Schneider, Ukraine
16.40 h - 17 h	Marina Blumin, Russia
18 h	Exhibition visit (location 6): Tour through the exhibition REWIND Personal Story

Saturday, 24 September

9 h	Networking session (location 1), Programme details to follow
	Moderators Lala de Dios and Beatrijs Sterk 25 lectures by ETN members and guests (format 10 minutes/10 images each) are accepted in the order of registration (application conditions at the ETN Secretariat)
11 - 11.30	Coffee break
11.30 - 13 h	Networking continued
13 - 14 h	Lunch
14 - 17.30 h	Networking continued
18 h	Exhibition opening (location 8): Andean Textile Art, Máximo Laura, Peru
20 h	Conference Dinner (location 5)

POST-CONFERENCE PROGRAMME (optional)

Sunday, 25 September (National Heritage Day)

10 h	Visit to the Archives of the National Museum (location 1)
12 h	Trip by bus to the Open Air Museum in Rumšiškės (25 km from Kaunas)
12.30 – 16 h	Special programme at the Open Air Museum
19 h	Exhibition visits: Laima Oržekauskienė (loc. 7); Estonian Art (loc.9)

well I am ready to be shipped home and I haven't even left yet

August turns into the Fall; Cross Country Textile Round Up

2011-08-05T15:51:00.002-04:00

Ange Yake Class of 2006 Textile Program at Sheridan College, in Oakville

Classic Comfort, Materials: Antique Fabric, Linen, Dye, Thread. Dimensions: 28”h x 29”d x 28”w, Process: Pot Dyeing, Devoré, Machine Stitching. March 2006. Photo provided by the designer/ maker and used with permission

[from fibreQuarterly volume 2 Issue 3 Summer 06]

Danielle Dengerink OCAD University Class of 2009 Digital Print on Silk Tunic Dress photo by Christine Lim, provided by the designer/ maker and used with permission

[from fibreQuarterly Volume 5 Issue 2/ Spring 2009]

fibreQUARTERLY has since 2005 showcased the work of 30 young makers just as they have left school for the "real" world or the Harbourfront Centre Craft Studio in Toronto or which some may think delays entering real life but it doesn't make the stress of paying your student loans off any different then anybody else's. This is a moment for them to pause and reflect on where they were and where they see themselves going in terms of a future working with fibre. Volume 7 Issue 2 Summer 2011 Finishing School is now on line and that is what it is all about. Ten students representing 5 different school, ACAD University, Capilano University, University of Lethbridge, OCAD University and Sheridan College.

Leanne Shea Rhem OCAD University Class of 2011
Target Suit weight silk, pleated silk organza, zipper, red permanent marker writing, thread

photo: Christine Lim

Model: Leanne Shea Rhem

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Cross Country Round Up August into the Fall

Ontario

this slap of cement was the footing for the construction (rather then relocation of ) a new building at Lang.

August 2009 photo taken by Joe Lewis August 2009 with permission

Lang Pioneer Village’s Heritage Celebration Weekend, Featuring the Festival of Textiles Saturday & Sunday, August 13 & 14 ~10am to 4pm each day

on Sunday august 8th 2010 I photographed the unfinished but obliviously there new building at Lang. this is the "Weaver's Shop" photo taken by Joe Lewis August 2010 with permission

Come celebrate textile traditions at Lang Pioneer Village during Lang’s Heritage Celebration Weekend featuring the “Festival of Textiles” on August 13th and 14th from 10am to 4pm each day. Join us for the much anticipated official opening of Lang Pioneer Village’s newest building, the S.W. Lowry Weaver Shop and Jacquard Loom Interpretive Centre, built to house a rare original Jacquard loom and an exquisitely crafted replica Jacquard loom. Help us celebrate our proud achievement at a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday August 13th at 1pm.

"The Jacquard Loom revolutionized the textile industry and led to the birth of the computers" image and quote from Lang

Lang Pioneer Village will host a Fibre Artist Marketplace. Browse through gorgeous displays of handmade fibre works for sale and meet with the artists.

Experience a “Sheep to Shawl” demonstration both days as hand weavers and spinners create a shawl from start to finish beginning with a sheep shearing demonstration, carding, spinning, weaving and ending with a raffle for the completed shawl. Throughout the Village, view various textile demonstrations including weaving, rug hooking, quilting, felting, stitching, embroidery, leather work, knitting, spinning, lace making, tatting, natural dyeing, chair caning and textile conservation. Learn about their craft from members of visiting guilds including the Ontario Handweavers & Spinners, Northumberland Rug Hookers, Northumberland Hills Stitchery Guild, Campbellford-Seymour Rug Hookers, and Peterborough and Warkworth Handweavers and Spinners.

Weaver Carrie Osbourn is weaving rag rugs on a two harness loom made of maple which was among the Samuel Lowry possessions that came into the collection of Lang Pioneer Village. This loom which is located in the "Trades Barn"

photo taken by Joe Lewis August 2010 with permission

Stop in at the Village’s Keene Hotel, where you can purchase ice cold beverages and fresh-baked goods. Enjoy your snacks on the Village Green while listening to live musical performances from Kirby & Yates and Appalachian Celtic. Take a tour of the Village by free horse-drawn wagon ride and children can try their hand at weaving by creating their own woven bookmark to take home.

You can see more images of Lang and the progress of the Weavers Shop in my facebook Albums

August 14 -17 2010,Lang Pioneer Village & Hutchinson House Museum

Festival of Textiles, Lang Pioneer Village, August 2009

Admission: Adults ($10), Students and Seniors ($9), Youth (5-14) $6, Family ($30) includes 2 adults and 4 youth, under 5 free. All taxes included.

For more information visit http://www.langpioneervillage.ca/

"Like" Lang Pioneer Village on facebook

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Alberta

At the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies in Banff there are two exhibitions featuring the paraphernalia of daily life of woman. Silk organza and GORE-TEX® are both serviceable materials for life in the Canadian Rockies

Mary Schaffer’s buckskin shirt, donated to the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies by Mary’s great-nephew, Eric, the son of Paul Sharpless, who traveled with Mary to Maligne Lake in 1911, and a lantern slide of Mary wearing the shirt, Mary Schaffer fonds (V527 / PS 1 – 01) image provided by Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies *

Women Adventurers in the Rockies

June 19 - November 15, 2011

Follow the stories of 10 women, five women from our colourful past & five contemporary women. They have all contributed to our unique Rocky Mountain culture. Their stories will be told through their possessions, images & interviews. One of them Mary Schäffer Warren whose buck skin shirt is pictured above is one of the "Mavericks" featured in the permanent exhibition of the same name at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary.

Mary Schäffer Warren (1861 – 1939) raised in a Pennsylvania Quaker family, visited the Canadian Rockies for the first time in 1889, returning year after year. When her husband Charles Schäffer died in 1903, Mary returned to complete the botanical guide to the flora of the Canadian Rockies that she and Charles had begun. With guide William (Billy) Warren, Mary developed the outdoor skills required to complete her project and to become the first non-Native woman to travel through much of the area now encompassed by Banff and Jasper national parks. In 1911, at the request of the Canadian Government, Mary, by this time an accomplished artist, photographer, and writer, was asked to survey Maligne Lake, an undertaking that was regarded as the exclusive domain of men in the early 20th century. Her survey ultimately led to its inclusion in Jasper National Park.

Dresses from the collection of the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation, featured in the High Fashion in the Rockies exhibition now at the Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies. image provided by Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

The Stuff of Legend: The Luxton Family in Banff and the Bow Valley featuring High Fashion in the Rockies– A surprising collection of gorgeous dresses belonging to Georgina and Eleanor – the Luxton ladies - is now featured. Rediscovered in the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation collection were dozens of beautiful dresses from 1910 through the 1960s. A small percentage of this extraordinary assortment of apparel along with accessories including gloves, purses, smoking paraphernalia, and lingerie, is on display in the Heritage Gallery

Purple Dress from the Renel Dress Salon, in Montreal, Canada, ca.1950 is part of collection of the Eleanor Luxton Historical Foundation, image provided by Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies* *

Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies

111 Bear Street

Banff, Alberta

http://www.whyte.org/

"like" the Whyte Museume of the Canadian Rockies on facebook

* You can find out more about Mary Schȁffer at the Glenbow Museum in their on-line version of the Mavericks exhibition in the "newcomer" section

** to see what High Fashion was also available in Montreal shops in the 1910- 1960s check out these "western garments" which are part of the Musee du costume et du textiles du Quebec collection

These exhibitions along with the new "Woman In Palaeontology." hallway leading from the "Lords of the Land exhibition up to Special Exhibition space featuring "I think..." (Charles Darwin, 1837) at the Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller Alberta show female rolls in the west were more then just the hookers farm wives and missionaries of Hollywood Westerns would have us believe.

August 20 - September 28 2011
Glenbow Museum, Calgary

Discover the glamour, luxury and artistry of cinematic fashion. Delight in the sumptuous fabrics, the lavish lace, skilled embroidery and unparalleled craftsmanship and creativity. Bask in the ambiance of big-screen cinema and the allure of famous film stars. An experience like no other awaits visitors to CUT! Costume and the Cinema.

On view for the first time in Canada, this exhibition reveals the integral role of costume design in creating unforgettable screen characters. "When actors put on those clothes that is when the character comes alive," says Nancy Lawson, exhibition co-curator. More than 30 actors are represented from some 25 films which depict five centuries of history, drama and comedy.

Cut! also allows the viewer to appreciate the fine details of costumes that often only appear fleetingly in the final film. The attention to detail in the research, design and creation of these film costumes crosses the line from craft to couture.

Fashion and film become fine art in this exciting exhibition. All 43 costumes were made by the renowned British costumer, Cosprop Ltd., and many have won major film awards for costume design, including the coveted Oscar™.

Glenbow Museum Website http://www.glenbow.org/

"Like" the Glenbow on facebook

British Columbia

"Slipstitch" JACKIE FRIOUD – Clay, JUDY ROBERTSON - Fabric

Circle Craft Gallery

Granville Island, Vancouver, BC

Sept. 2nd - Oct. 4th, 2011

These Okanagan based artist’s unique talents are a combination of hooked rugs and porcelain functional ware. Robertsons’ hooked rugs tell a detailed story embroidered into the fabric before being hooked. She favours natural fibres and chooses these for each rug with foresight. Frioud’s white porcelain line explores ‘stitching’ and ‘wrapping’ within a series of functional limited

http://www.circlecraft.net/page432.htm

detail of hooked rug by Judy Robertson

Judy Robertson says, “The stories I write are hand-embroidered on strips of fabric. I then use a traditional hooked-rug method, embedding the story into the piece.“Approximately three-quarters of the text disappears within the folds, leaving only fragments of words showing. I think these works are about a presence that cannot be known, a voice that is just outside of understanding. Perhaps it is the unconscious trying to surface or the quiet pleas of a person all alone.”

Dateline Toronto:

In Place: new landscapes

Dorothy Caldwell

September 29 - October 30 2011

David Kaye Gallery

1092 Queen Street West

Toronto Onatrio

http://www.davidkayegallery.com/

you can read my profile of Dorothy Callwell in Textile Fibre Forum Volume 28 issue 4 No 96, 2009, p. 30 profile: Dorothy Caldwell: Marking Time

find Textile Fibre Forum on line at http://www.tafta.org.au/

Grace Ndiritu, Still Life: White Textiles, 2005-07, photograph from video.

Image: Courtesy the artist and The Agency Gallery, London, provided by the TMC

Opening soon at the Textile Museum of Canada

Veiled: Andrew McPhail, Grace Ndiritu and Tazeen Qayyum

October 12, 2011 to February 12, 2012.

Curator Sarah Quinton,

The exhibition examines the act of veiling as a physical, emotional and personal processes.

In September 2009 during the Hamilton Arts Crawl I accompanied Andrew Mcphail as he strolled down James Street North as he performed "all my little failures" McPhail in a shroud made of a grid of adhesive Bandages looking like either a fishing net or flesh colour lace glided down James Street North repelling or interacting with the milling crowd. I photographed and shot video during this event little realizing it was the star of a new body of work.

Andrew has just spent the month of July as Artist in Residence at Gallery Connexion is Fredericton’s only artist-run center, located in the capital city of New Brunswick, Canada. Continuing to work with band aids as a medium. the exhibition of this work runs August 4 to September 30, 2011

currently running

Silk Oasis on the Silk Road: Bukhara

March 23 - September 25, 2011

Permanent Collection: An Iconography of Celebration

March 23 - September 25, 2011

Magic Squares: The Patterned Imagination of Muslim Africa in Contemporary Culture

May 18 - November 20, 2011

Cold Comfort: New and Improved Souvenirs of Canada

June 18 - September 18, 2011

"Like" the Textile Museum of Canada on facebook

On Tour

detail of Kai Chan's The Tower and its Spirit 1984 wood, thread, cotton organza 234 X 59 X 51 cm and 239 X 56 X 61 cm ( in the collection of the Museum of Civilization CMCC -94_576.1...-2) photo by Joe Lewis taken with permission of the Varley Art Gallery in September 2010 opening of A Spider's Logic

KAI CHAN : LA LOGIQUE DE L'ARAIGNÉE /
May 24 _ September 4 2011
Musée d’art de Joliette
145, rue Père-Wilfrid-Corbeil
Joliette (Québec) J6E 4T4

http://www.museejoliette.org/

Organized by the Textile Museum of Canada and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham

Kai Chan: A Spider’s Logic will continue to tour throughout 2012 at the Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan), Cambridge Galleries (Cambridge, Ontario), and Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery (Halifax, Nova Scotia).

New Publications:

Kai Chan: A Spider's Logic Exhibition Catalogue is available now through ABC Art Books

Essays by Sarah Quinton, Shannon Anderson and Charles Guilbert

87 pages, 27 colour ill., 20.25 x 26.5 cm in softcover

$35.00 CDN.

Kai Chan: A Spider's Logic : A 35-year retrospective documenting the work of Toronto-based artist Kai Chan, A Spider's Logic brings together key artworks, many of which have never been seen together before. Chan’s work is critically received equally within the discipline of textiles and the visual arts in general. 'A master of the unremarkable', Chan has successfully altered the gene pool of what constitutes sculpture and what constitutes textiles. The essays presented here bring together different perspectives and responses to Chan's work. Sarah Quinton, Shannon Anderson and Charles Guilbert's texts are insightful, attentive to his evolving concerns, and offer an in-depth reading of a lifelong practice.

Tapestry Weaving - Design and Technique by Joanne Soroka

ISBN: 9781847972804, Published: 01/08/2011 by The Crowood Press
Pages: 184
Binding: Hardback
Size: 260x215 mm
Inside: 190 colour photographs & diagrams

"Tapestries were among the most prestigious of art forms, created for the mightiest in the land and valued for centuries. Despite its illustrious history, tapestry weaving is actually a simple technique that requires little equipment or expenditure, and can be done anywhere. Written by a prominent tapestry weaver, this lavishly illustrated book gently leads you through the whole process with detailed diagrams and exciting work by contemporary weavers. It will be useful to the absolute beginner, but experienced weavers will also find new ideas and techniques to tempt and inspire them."

avilabel through The Crowood Press

Canadian born, now based in Edinburgh Scotland, Joanne Soroka with her work, GoldenSections, tapestry 2007, wool, cotton, flax, synthetic thread and wire 155 x155 cm at the group show Art Textiles in Canada at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles to launch "Art Textiles of the World: Canada" from Telos Art Publishers in April of 2009

Website: http://www.joannesoroka.co.uk/index.html

Add caption

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This is a small sampling of Textile events and exhibitions happening in Canada over the next few months. So get out there and if you feel the need to write about what you are seeing or reading, fQ is looking for content.

cheers

Joe Lewis wearing Keiley Stewart 's Lion's Head Size: 60cm x 40cm Medium: Felted; coopeworth, camel, 2011. Photo take at the opening of Shape of Things, Sheridan College 2011 Graduate exhibition

Finishing School

2011-07-27T03:02:00.000-04:00

The phrase "Finishing School" conjures up images of Chateaus in France or Switzerland where the daughters of the untitled upper class merchants are dumped, like rough stones into a rock tumbler, to acquire the polish and veneer required for marriage, ideally to the son of a titled European

Lindsay Joy, ACAD University, "Dread". appliqué and embroidered cotton and wool on linen. 2010. 38cm x 36cm.

Photo by Melinda Topilko

Not today. Finishing school is when you start racing the clock to a way to start paying off your student loan. It might be a time to look back at the 3, 4 or more years you have spent in school studying something that might gain you employment

Shanell B. Papp, B.F.A., M.F.A. University of Lethbridge, Bone book and Blood Pools, 2007-2009
Materials: Canvas, Velvet, Thread Techniques: Sewing, Embrodery, Pattern Making

Leanne Shea Rhem, OCAD University "Target" Suit weight silk, pleated silk organza, zipper, red permanent marker writing, thread
photo: Christine Lim
Model: Leanne Shea Rhem

The new Issue of fibreQUARTERLY is now on line. Volume 7 Issue 2 Summer 2011 is our Finishing School issue and that is what it is all about. Ten students representing 5 different school, ACAD University, Capilano University, University of Lethbridge, OCAD University and Sheridan College.

fibreQUARTERLY has since 2005 showcased the work of 30 young makers just as they have left school for the "real" world or the Harbourfront Centre Craft Studio in Toronto or which some may think delays entering real life but it doesn't make the stress of paying your student loans off any different then anybody else's. This is a moment for them to pause and reflect on where they were and where they see themselves going in terms of a future working with fibre.

Enjoy the enthusiasm and bravado and hopefully pride they are experiencing right now and the ways in which they are expressing it.

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Joe Lewis wearing Keiley Stewart 's Lion's Head Size: 60cm x 40cm Medium: Felted; coopeworth, camel, 2011. Photo take at the opening of Shape of Things, Sheridan College 2011 Graduate exhibition

May Exhibition round up including Student Exbitbtions

2011-05-08T10:32:00.000-04:00

In Montreal

‘Self Fold #4’ by Philippa Brock, 2009, CAD/CAM woven Jacquard
Loom: Dataweave jacquard
Technique: triple,double and single layer cloth
Materials: Warp: Silk organzine. Weft: Paper, copper wire, elastemeric.
Dimensions: Width: 104cm. Height: 215cm

The work is based on exploring the potential for a self folded fabric to work with a diagonal design, developed from a self generated tessellation folding idea, which combined with the authors own yarn and weave structure interaction, self folded into a 3D structure as it came off the loom. The piece also continued to self fold more through humidity in the atmosphere.. You can read more about Phillipa Brock's work at the Textiles Future Research Centre

plier/déplier - fold/unfold
Phillipa Brock (United Kingdom) - Tine De Ruysser (UK) - Sarah Kelly (United Kingdom) - Stephanie Lau (Canada) - Elisabeth Lecourt (United Kingdom) - Eun-Kyung Suh (USA)

March 14 - April 29

MCCT Annual Student Exhibition
featuring Marie Anne Adam Dominique Dansereau Carine La Roche
May 16th to May 27th

Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles
5800 St Denise suit 501
Montreal, Quebec

From May 16th to May 27th, the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles presents its annual exhibition with a special focus on the 2011 finishing students and their collections : Marie-Anne Adam, Dominique Dansereau et Carine La Roche. This exhibition is also the occasion to admire more works created during the year by all students of the MCCT. The opening is taking place on Wednesday, May 18th at 5 pm
find them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1718251738

Aurora Borealis Behind the Trees # 4: Curtain of Light
©Thoma Ewen 2009

FIBRES BORÉALES
May 11th - June 5 2011
Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec
615 avenue Sainte-Croix, Montréal, H4L 3X6

The group Fibres Boréales evolved from a three year intensive course in tapestry and textile arts that Thoma Ewen taught at Moon Rain Centre from 2005 to 2008. The tapestries in this exhibition represent the woven visual explorations and meditations on northern light and the aurora borealis by Francine Chartrand, Denise Coker, Thoma Ewen, Hope Maclean, Krystyna Sadej and Phyllis Wedding

visit the MMAQ's website http://www.mmaq.qc.ca/
Attend the Art Auction and and cocktail reception on May 26, 2011 at 6 pm to celbrate the launch of the Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec for the publication of the premier issue of their new on-line magazine L’Enclume / the Anvil. (download pdf)

Ongoing

FASHION IS THE CENTURY
Look at fashion and trends of the 20th century
February 5 to May 29, 2011
Musée du costume et du textile du Québec (MCTQ)
349, rue Riverside
Saint-Lambert, Québec

Fashion is a paradox that oscillates between the individual and the ephemeral, between consumption and art. The 20th century has been one of excess and upheaval, whether in science, technology, politics, art and of course fashion. In this sense, never a time will not be demarcated as compared to previous centuries.

Fashion is the century invites you to discover or rediscover the major trends that have shaped women's fashion of each decade. These are more than 75 objects from the collections of the museum that will decline the words: fashion, clothing, dress, hat, shoes, trend, beauty and desire.

find MCTQ on facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mus%C3%A9e-du-costume-et-du-textile-du-Quebec/111928018835551?v=wall

Quebec City on going

Vita Plume & Caitlin Erskine-Smith: a narrative "
April 15 to May 22, 2011
Centre MATERIA
395, boulevard Charest Est
Québec (Québec)

April 15 to May 22, 2011, the Center MATERIA present the works of two artists, Vita Plume (Raleigh, USA) and Caitlin Erskine-Smith (Toronto, Canada), whose words come together since their woven works explore the role textiles as a means of communication and strengthening of identity. The exhibition, which deals with communication, cultural identity and the importance of written language, combining traditional techniques with the latest technological developments.

Remains 2007 by Catlin Erskine-Smith, woven cotton and linen with painted warp, part of Making Thinking Thinking Making at Harbourfront /York Quay Centre main gallery in January 2011

Visit the website for more information http://www.centremateria.com/

KAI CHAN : LA LOGIQUE DE L'ARAIGNÉE
May 24 _ September 4 2011
Musée d’art de Joliette
145, rue Père-Wilfrid-Corbeil
Joliette (Québec) J6E 4T4
T | 450 756-0311 poste 233
F | 450 756-6511

www.museejoliette.org
Organized by the Textile Museum of Canada and the Varley Art Gallery of Markham

Two Islands and a River, Kia Chan, 2010 Silk Thread, 234 X 333 X 5 cm, this piece is on display at the Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham [photo by Joe Lewis]

British Columbia

Kootenay School of the Arts at Selkirk College

Graduation Show 2011
April 21 – May 29
Touchstones Nelson,
502 Vernon Street. Nelson, British Columbia

Katie Crittenden,The Pool, grass, dyed chiffon, glass beads, crinoline, wire, 2011

Image by Rod Taylor

Like Kootenay School of the Arts at Selkirk College on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/ksa.selkirk

Capilano University Textile Arts Department’s Grad Show

May 17 – 29
the Ferry Gallery Building
1414 Argyle Avenue
West Vancouver, BC
V7T 1C2

http://www2.capilanou.ca/programs/textile-arts.html

http://ferrybuildinggallery.com/

like Capilano University Textile Arts Department on facebook http://www.facebook.com/CapUTextileArts?sk=wall

In Ontario

Myself wearing Needle felted Lion's Head by Keiley Stewart Sheridan Class of 2011

The Shape of Things to Come: Sheridan Textile Studios
April 28-May 8, 2011April 28, 6-9pm
Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
990 Queen St. W., Toronto

Katie Walker screen printed silk scarves

Some of the Sheridan Textile Students will part of the Hamilton Arts Crawl on Friday May 13th at James Buttram & Sons 144 James Street North, Hamilton. http://www.jamesstreetnorth.ca/blog/

Joanna Schleimer OCAD University class of 2011 "Lessons on Leaving", handwoven gauze and embroidery

Show Off: OCAD University 96th Annual Open House
May 6- 9 2011

Emily Murphy OCAD University class of 2011beaded purses by Sarah Lavoie part of her Tenacity & the handbag of Canadian Suffragette series

OCAD University MAAD program

There is a facebook album School is Over and its Open House May 2011 showing more images from The Shape of things to Come ;Sheridan Textiles 2011, and OCAD University 96th Annual Open House at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150589821050311.679165.890860310&l=5951d83918

Amada McCavour ICEBOX

MADE
867 Dundas Street West
Toronto, Ontario
Show runs: May 5th through June 30th, 2011

http://www.amandamccavour.com/

Amanda McCavour in the her Icebox. installation at MADE

Hunter's coat,: West Africa, Mali; cotton; cowrie shell; skin; tooth; claw; glass mirror; hand woven; plain woven; machine-sewn; hand-sewn mid 20th century T81.0112 Image provided by the Textile Museum of Canada

Magic Squares: The Patterned Imagination of Muslim Africa in Contemporary Culture
Jamelie Hassan, Hamid Kachmar, Alia Toor and Tim Whiten
Curated by Patricia Bentley

May 18, 2011 - Nov 20, 2011
Textile Museum of Canada
55 Centre Avenue (Dundas St. W & University Ave., St. Patrick subway)
Toronto, Ontario

http://www.textilemuseum.ca/apps/index.cfm?page=exhibition.detail&exhId=323

on going
Silk Oasis on the Silk Road: Bukhara curated by Natalia Nekrassova, Mar 23, 2011 - Sep 25, 2011

detail of Coat/ yaktak, Uzbekistan, Late 19th century, material: Silk; cotton, Method: Warp ikat; velvet; card woven; printed; hand-sewn; quilted L 126 cm x W 145 cm T94.1047, From the Opekar / Webster Collection, Image provided by the Textile Museum of Canada

track the Textile Muse of Canada on facebook http://www.facebook.com/textilemuseumofcanada

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Central Ontario comes alive with Quilt exhibitions, festivals and conferences with workshops the last week of May. There are dozens of exhibitions and the work of several hundred Quilters to be seen. The annual Quilt &Fibre Art Festival: Waterloo Region & Beyond kicks of on May 24th. This springs major group show is Stitches Across Time at the Dufferine County Museum and Archive opening on May 27th. Below I have provided Links and google maps to help you organize your schedule and road trips. all locations are an easy distance from Toronto if you drive. Some of the quilt events provide shuttle services between exhibitions consult their websites for more information.

Quilt & Fibre Art Festival: Waterloo Region & Beyond
Tuesday May 24 to Saturday May 28, 2011
http://www.stjacobs.com/html/St.JacobsQuiltShows.html

"teaser" from the Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival [image proved by organizers]

The Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival

Monday, May 23 at 9:00am - May 28 at 5:00pm
Ailsa Craig Recreation Centre in Ailsa Craig, Ontario

155 Annie Ada Shipley

Ailsa Craig, ON N0M 1A0, Canada

The Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival is a not-for-profit Community Organization dedicated to quilting our local and international communities through shared appreciation for this ancient and beautiful fibre art technique.

We are delighted to play host to a stunning collection of Dutch quilts, May 23-28, 2011. Workshops, Merchants’ Mall, Gala Dinner and Community Events are planned for the entire week – announcements, calendar dates and updates will be posted as information becomes available. Check back here regularly for news updates. This exhibition coincides with the Canadian Quilters Association annual juried show, a short bus ride away in London, Ontario.

"teaser" from the Ailsa Craig Community Quilt Festival [image proved by organizers]

http://www.ailsacraigquiltfestival.org/

View Larger Map

Canadian Quilters Association / Quilt Ontario
at University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario
May 24 - 28, 2011

Below are links to information about Quilt Ontairo 2011

Welcome to London 2011
To find current news:
BLOG: www.quiltontario2011.blogspot.com/

Quilt Ontario Conference: Reprint of information from the Autumn Canadian Quilters Newsletter (full article)

Brown taffeta two-piece dress with salmon taffeta highlights on both skirt and bodice. Skirt is heavily pleated at back with bustle and has fine pleated trim at hem. Fitted bodice has covered buttons and the same pleated trim at cuffs. About 1870. A204-005 WW Brown dress, Dufferin County Museum & Archives [image used with permission]

This was one of six inspiration pieces that accompanied the call for submission for Stitches Across Time.

Stitches across Time Juried Textile Show
May 27 - August 21, 2011
Dufferin County Museum & Archives
936029 Airport Road
Corner of Highway 89 & Airport Road
Rosemont, Ontario

Opening Night Celebration Friday May 27, 2011 at 7:00 pm

Pieced quilt, of wool, possibly handspun. A variation of the Square in a Square pattern, made up of triangles. About 168 x 180 cm. Of solid colours and some tweeds. Consists of nine, 50 cm squares with an inner square of 38 cm, and a centre square about 25 cm. Pieced bindings top and bottom. Assembled by machine and quilted by hand. Made by Catherine Fleming who settled in what was to become Dufferin County around 1830. Quilt dates to 1860s. A208-280 Quilt Dufferin County Museum & Archives [image used with permission]

Pat Burns-Wendland Dufferin’s Past [image used with permission]

related exhibition

Textiles: More Than Words Can Say
March 13 - December 15, 2011

The Dufferin County Museum Archives main exhibit for 2011 features a wide range of textiles specifically selected from the Museum’s extensive textile collection. Handmade fabrics such as coverlets and woven blankets represent the pioneer period. Examples of Victorian to Contemporary fashion certainly will prove that everything old does become new again. Fashion accessories such as jewellery, fans and shoes strengthen the exhibit. Quilts and hand hooked rugs represent the skill and artistry of our local residents from 1860 to 1960. For collectors this show is a must see and includes literally thousands of textile and textile-related artifacts

visit the Dufferin County Museum Archive's website @ http://www.dufferinmuseum.com/
and for more information about Stitches Across Time

View Larger Map

Fibre Mania; Open House and Shearing event
May 28th
Spinning Wheel Alpaca farm,
The admission is by donation fund raiser for Hearth Place Cancer Support Centre in Oshawa, Ontario. if you have never met an Alpaca or seen live shearing this is it.

View Larger Map

visit their website at http://www.spinningwheelalpacas.com/

Eastern Canada

NSCAD University Graduation Exhibition 2011
May 9, 2011 - May 20, 2011
Anna Leonowens, Port Loggia and Seeds Galleries
Weekly exhibitions

NSCAD Fashion Department had their year end fashion show on Easter weekend. you can find images once you Like them on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/NSCAD-Fashion-Department/122243899832?sk=wall

Lady’s beaded purse, lined in brown silk and measuring 23 cm deep by 16 cm wide. It is beaded both front and back. The upper section is a shell pattern using black, yellow, and blue glass beads. The lower section is a stylized floral in brown, wine, gold, blue, yellow, and green. A looped fringe of brown beads finishes the bottom. Handle, chain and closing of plastic in a tortoise shell pattern. About 1900. 972-01-493 Beaded purse Dufferin County Museum & Archives [image used with permission]This was one of six inspiration pieces that accompanied the call for submission for Stitches Across Time.

College Of The North Atlantic Textiles: Craft and Apparel Design
Cut & Baste: Textile Graduation Exhibition 2011
May 28 - June 11
The Anna Templeton Centre
278 Duckworth St
St. John's, NL
12-4pm daily. Free Admission
Opening Saturday, May 28 · 2:00pm - 5:00pm

You can Like the Anna Templeton Centre on facebook

meanwhile...

"Emily Murphy beaded purse" by Sarah Lavoie OCAD University Class of 2011. This beaded Purse is part of her Tenacity & the Handbag of Canadian Suffragette series

Constructed, Assembled and Printed Textile Surfaces, [ Spring Shows and the One Of A Kind Show ]

2011-03-20T12:38:00.009-04:00

The Jewellery Box by Nancy Yule Booth: D-12 at the One Of A Kind Show March 30 - April 3,

"We all have an intimate relationship with fabric during our lifetimes. Life begins swaddled in a blanket and ends in a burial shroud. Although we take cloth for granted, I am enamoured with all of it’s qualities. It’s fluidity, texture, tactility, colour, the list seems endless."

Nancy Yule (from her website www.nancyyule.com )

As Spring blossoms so do a new round of exhibitions:


Valerie Knapp, Whirl and Sticks, change purse, relief printed on 100% linen, fastened with Mother of Pearl Button photo by Joe Lewis

Handy: An Exhibition of Functional Craft
March 17 - April 10, 2011
Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
990 Queen Street W, Toronto

Pat Burns-Wendland, Midnight Flight, Handwoven Kimono, pre-dyed tencel then discharged resist
Photo by Joe Lewis

SELECT WORKS: Cambridge Galleries Contemporary Canadian Textile Collection
March 17 – April 10, 2011Design at Riverside Cambridge Galleries

Angela Silver, Red Thread Book (detail), 2004 Shown in 2007 Selections From exhibition

Arounna Khounnoraj (Toronto, ON) "untitled" 2000, Salt and Copper wire.(approx 4' high)
This piece is part of the Cambridge Galleries permanent collection added in 2001
Gift of the Artist was part of FABRICation: Studio Production Textiles for Interiors, August 24 - October 24, 2010, Cambridge Galleries Design at Riverside.[photo: joe lewis]

Joy Walker 3 pieces of craft paper, creased. 2011

Chanced, new work by Joy Walker
Saturday, March 19 at 2:00pm - April 16 at 6:00pm
MKG127
127 Ossington Avenue
Toronto, ON

Coverlet, Uzbekistan, Late 19th century, L 232 cm x W 153 cm, T94.2013
Image provided by the Texile Museum of Canada.

Silk Oasis on the Silk Road: Bukhara
Curated by Natalia Nekrassova
Mar 23, 2011 - Sep 25, 2011

Bukhara features a collection of Central Asian ikats and embroidered silks — coats, veils, wall hangings and coverlets from the Textile Museum’s permanent collection — to visualize the Bukhara region’s rich textile history and place it within the diverse cultural traditions of Asia

Coat, Uzbekistan, Late 19th century, L 126 cm x W 145 cm Image provided by the Texile Museum of Canada

2011 One of a Kind Spring Show Toronto
March 30 - April 3
Direct Energy Centre, Exhibition Place

"For over 35 years, the One of a Kind Show has been helping artists and artisans from across the country to make a living out of their passion. We are not alone in our endeavours – this section celebrates the educational institutions and organizations of the Canadian art and craft community who work to teach, foster talent, grant opportunities, and increase exposure of the uniquely talented artists and artisans working today. Debuting at the 2011 Spring Show, the Craft Community of Canada section will feature 10 artists who have been nominated by one of Canada's leading arts &culture organizations." One Of A Kind website

Featured in this section are the following textile artisan with their sponsoring institution or organization .

Constructed

Julie Pongrac Hand knit lace bowlst. Material(s): Vine or Hanji paper embellished with glass beads and wire. Price: $85 - $495

Julie Pongrac Studio Showing with Crafts Council of British Columbia
Booth: E-32
Duration: Full Show
www.gossamerwear.com
Vancouver, BC

Julie Pongrac, Vancouver, BC Master Knitter, Designer My life has never been without fibre. Knitting and sewing were life skills as important to thrift as managing a budget. An essential part of this notion of thrift was the use of quality fabrics and fibres to produce garments that would last the passage from one sibling to another. [from artist bio]

Assembled

Nicole McInnis Showing with Ryerson School of Fashion
Oh Dina!
Booth: E-40
www.ohdina.com
Hammonds Plains, NS

Oh Dina! was launched in 2008 while Nova Scotian designer Nicole McInnis was attending the fashion design program at Ryerson University. After studying millinery she fell in love with the art and began to create pieces that paid homage to the 40′s with a quirky twist.[from artist bio]

Printed as fashion

Georgina Russell, Hair Scarf , Swirling hair printed with bleach based ink on cotton.
Material(s): Cotton, bleach, Price: $60

Georgina Russell showing with Emily Carr University of Art & Design
Hand + Shadow
Booth: E-38
www.handandshadow.com
Vancouver, BC

Printed Textiles as Interior Decor

Shuyu Lu Pillows Price: $50-$70

Shuyu Lu, Showing with the Ontario Crafts Council
Booth: E-29
www.shuyulu.com
Toronto, ON

Caroline Gamiette reversible hand printed table lamp Material(s): silk

Caroline Gamiette Showing with Centre de Recherche et de Design en Impression Textile de Montreal
Fibre En Lumière
Booth: E-36
Montreal, QC

Born in the Caribbean, Caroline Gamiette has a nomadic soul. After spending her childhood in Guadeloupe, she lived in Europe and decided to settle down in North America ten years ago. Having received her diploma from the Applied Arts National Superior school Duperré in France. [from artist bio]

Cathia Finkel Table Setting with crow motif : Placemats and Napkins Material(s): Cotton Price: $40.00 2 Placemat and 2 Napkins

Cathia Finkel, showing with Anna Templeton Centre
A Line of Crows
Booth: E-3
blog, http://lineofcrows.blogspot.com
St. John's, NL

Cathia Finkel lives and creates in St. John's, NL. She graduated from College of the North Atlantic's Textiles: Craft and Apparel Design program in 2010, and is the emerging artist at the Anna Templeton Centre for Craft, Art & Design (funded by RBC) [from artist bio]

And Now For the Rest of the show

Lucille Crighton Jacket in the 2008 Hall of Fame

Among the "Raising Stars" and Makers returning to the show there are only two categorized/ identified as weavers. They are makers of place mats and table runners, Lyne Lévesque & Gérald Levesque of Tissage Magély Weaving [Booth: J-23]from New Brunswick and Elsa Brigden Elliott, of Silo Weaver [Booth: J-52]from St. Jacobs. Silo Weavers is a fixture at the shows as is Hall of Fame artisan Lucille Crighton [Booth: F-04] is in the fashion category whose garments constructed from her hand woven cloth have a strong and continuing to grow clientele who come to the show every couple of years to a new piece or two. A new artisan to the show is Marni Martin in [booth C-04] she is from Huntsville On. she is a hand weaver who does tapestry and fashion accessories.

Marni Martin "Into to Garden", 2010; hand-dyed cotton, rayon, silk, wool weft, cotton warp; tapestry technique; 32” x 26”

Marni Martin Hand dyed and woven scarves; silk and rayon

image provided by Marni Martin

Year after year while speaking with the artisans regardless of how they are categories if they work with textiles i ask about process not price. I am interest how they achieve the surface from which they make their end "product". Construction methods such as weaving felting and knitting seem obvious enough but what I now think of as assembled covers pieced quilts, re- purposing all ready constructed clothing aka recycling, layered, applique, embroidered, beading, fusing, its a long list and doesn't included painting, dying or printing.

Nancy Yule, Journal Covers, assembled textile quilted,

Nancy Yule [booth D-12] is a example of this type of work ( see Jewellery box at top of post and journal covers above so would Janna Roizenman (Edenwool) Booth: G-49 with fused felted super fine merino wool, alpaca on pure silk yardage. Chatherine Timms Quilter [Booth M-49] is back with her pieced work as is Hilary Cosgrove
[Booth: M-05] with another parliament of Owls and flock of birds made of men's wool suiting and bedding.

Hilary Cosgrove [Booth: M-05] Parliament of Owls at 2010 Cabbagetown Festival [photo by Joe Lewis]

Susan Harris of Susan Harris Design [Booth: K-20] has been taking clothes apart and making new ones. Wendy Van Riesen of Dahlia Drive [Booth: K-29] ".resurrecting the fashion wasteland Dahlia Drive salvages discarded slips, men's shirts, fabric and resurrects each piece with colour, images and embellishment to create one of a kind wearable art for the unique individual" both of these designers embellish their garments with prints

Susan Harris Design entered the One of A Kind Hall Of Fame in 2008

Dahlia Drive Lace Long black dress screened with a gigantic doily image. Material(s): nylon
Price: $225

Since I am looking at fashion and printing you will see a number of printed T-shirts in some case that is the main part of the business in others it is the starter pieces that lead into a range of printed fashion, accessories and decor items. Jennifer Neill & Valerie Neill of Judy Black [Booth: G-45] always has bright sharp multicoloured images of "pop" iconography. H er "Acid Sunset "is a classic "Northern Landscape" she has used it on t-shirt and pillow. Like the textiles designed by Thorn Hansen that were produced to support an idealized "Canadian Identity".hers celebrate a Rock and Roll attitude.

Acid Sunset t=shirt and pillow by Judy Black

More Rock and Roll attitude comes from American T-shirt Designer Jason Laurits Paste [Booth: A-43] they are irreverent and equally offensive for both men and woman and kind of stupid I like what i saw on his website. Digitally design and hand screen in Brooklyn he is invading Canada just as the One Of a Kind Show is invading America with a New York Show happening in November and Chicago show in December.

Whales Hand-Silkscreened T-shirt by Jason Laurits, 100% Cotton, Made in the USA, Enzyme-washed for pre-shrinkage and soft, vintage feel Material(s): 100% Cotton T-shirt, Water-Base Paint Price: C$31 or 2 for C$50

Printed Textile products abound at the show and this year furniture with printed upholstery is being presented by Emanuelle Dion & Isabelle Bergeron, Foutu Tissu, booth: K-33. who are graduates of the Centre de Recherche et de Design en Impression Textile de Montreal and where featured in fQ Volume 5 Issue 3 Fall 2009. The Textile Design and Printing Centre is part of CEGEP du Vieux-Montréal along with the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, teaches textile construction methods, weaving, felting and knitting. Graduate from the MCCT Marie-Pierre Daigle Booth: B-05 class of 2007 has brought a range of woven or knit scarfs on the edge between the jewel and the utilitarian object, its scarfs marry bamboo fibres, merino wool and wool fleecemaking.

Websites and Other textile artisans at the show
.

Marie Pierre Daigle
Booth: B-0
www.mpdaigle.com
Montreal, QC

Marni Martin weaver

Booth: C-04
www.marnimartinfibrestudio.com
Huntsville, ON

Gillian Woan quilts
Booth: C-04
Torrance, ON

Nancy Yule
Booth: D-12
www.nancyyule.com
Cambridge, ON

Cathia Finkel
A Line of Crows
Booth: E-37
blog, http://lineofcrows.blogspot.com

Katie Jung, during the 2010 Christmas show I first came across the work of Katie Jung in the pages of Worn Fashion Journal - Issue no.7, it was a cover story on the collaboration between Katie Jung and Elif Saydam

Valérie Avondo
Zucchini
Booth: F-03

www.lezucchini.com
Pointe Claire, QC

Frédérique Satre
Miss Fred
Booth: G-43
Montreal, QC

Janna Roizenman (Edenwool)
Booth: G-49
www.edenwool.com
Toronto, ON

Jenna Fenwick
jenna rose
Booth: H-04
www.jennarose.ca
Hamilton, ON

Mary Lund
Silk By Mary Lund
Booth: I-35
Windsor, NS

Elena Savinovskaia
Elena's Felting
Booth: J-21
www.elenasfelting.ucoz.com
Kitchener, ON

Lyne Lévesque & Gérald Levesque
Tissage Magély Weaving
Booth: J-23
Drummond, NB

Arounna Khounnoraj &John Booth
bookhou
Booth: J-37
ww.bookhou.com
Toronto, ON

Elsa Brigden Elliott
Silo Weavers
Booth: J-52
www.siloweavers.ca
St. Jacobs, ON

Emanuelle Dion & Isabelle Bergeron
Foutu Tissu
Booth: K-33
www.foututissu.blogspot.com
Montreal, QC

Hilary Cosgrove
Booth: M-05
www.hilarycosgrove.com
Kingston, ON

Catherine Timm Ouilts

Booth: M-49
www.catherinetimm.com
Westmeath, ON

Ginette Barbe, Catherine Duplessis & Marc-André Duplessis
Sanibel Hats & Accessories
Booth: O-10

Montreal, QC

Lily Lam
D'Arbo Bags
Booth: O-27
w.d-arbo.com
Richmond Hill, ON

Sil Frebrian & Frankie Frebrian
Batavia By Sil
Booth: O-30

www.handmadebysil.com
Hamilton, ON

Izabela Sauer & Jacob Sauer

Alarte Silks
Booth: Q-41
www.alartesilks.com
Vancouver, BC

COMING SOON

Anna Torma, Universe 2 (detail). 2010. Vintage quilt, hand embroidery. Courtesy of the artist

Anna Torma: ENCYCLOPAEDIA DOMESTICA
April 2 – May 15, 2011
CAMBRIDGE GALLERIES QUEEN’S SQUARE
1 North Square Cambridge,
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 2 at 2:30 pm

Anna Torma’s textile art combines personal and formal elements with traditional hand-embroidery and stitching techniques producing complex images deeply rooted in culture and craft. Through layers of text and image amongst found and fabricated textiles the wall-hangings recall drawing and collage more than conventional embroidery.

WEBSITE: http://www.annatorma.com/

______________________________________________________________

Celebrate Japan: This is just a sampling of Japanese and Japanese influenced work I have seen in the past 7 years

2011-03-17T03:51:00.003-04:00

Before telling you about what is coming up in the next few weeks I have to say the recent and ongoing event in Japan are foremost in my mine. If you have not made a donation to the Japanese relief efforts please make one now Donate online - Japan Earthquake/Asia-Pacific Tsunami

Untitled work by Japanese weaver Mitsuko Akutsu, from 2 X2 Montreal/ Tokyo exhibition in Montreal

Less then a month ago I was in Montreal to attend the opening of 2X2 Montreal/ Tokyo and to visit with the two Japanese weavers Mitsuko Akutsu, and Emiko Nakano who are in this exhibition with Louise Lemieux Bérubé, and Julianna Joos. Both have been heard from and have survived. Mitsuko works at the Aoyama Gakuin Women's Junior College is located in the "fashionable" Aoyama district in the heart of Tokyo and Emiko is a former professor from Tokyo Zokei University Both of these school offer textile education and at this point we can only sit and wait to find out about there future.

Zokie University Textile Blog http://www3.atword.jp/zokei/ is still on line its last posting was March 12, I have visited it when looking for information about exhibition in Tokyo and even though I do not read or speak Japanese we know "a picture says a thousand words" or what ever the phrase is.

Emiko Nakano's jacquard "From Where to Where" 1 and 2

The Japan Foundation located at 131 Bloor Street West, Suite 213. Toronto, Ontario is one of my favourite exhibition spaces in Toronto and has brought young artist from Japan to Canada. Last fall the “Winter Garden: The Exploration of the Micropop Imagination in Contemporary Japanese Art” struck me hard and I had to write about it. In 2007 they presented an exhibition of Canadian artist inspired by Japaneses textile and paper making traditions. fQ present the work from Found in Translation: Interpreting Elements of Japanese Design
curated by Arlene Gehring and featuring weaver dyers Judith Fielder and Nieves Carrasco who work with sshibori and sashiko two methods of resist dying.

The Sun” by Ryoko Aoki installation during "Winter Garden" (photo taken with permission of Japan Foundation for fQ posting)

Japanese Textile and Fibre Traditions in Canada

The influence of Japanese crafts is far reaching and world wide. I would just like to point out some of the exhibitions, events, makers, designers and artist working under the influence so to speak. that I have the opportunity to see, participate in and meet for the past six years of doing fibreQUARTERLY

SHIBORI

Handwoven wool,shibori dyed, textured by Judith Fielder image provided by Arlene Gehring

Yvonne Wakabayashi, sea Anemone V, 2007, shibori sculpted silk was part of the exhibition Textile Arts of Canada April 15 – May 22, 2009, mounted to coincide with the launch of Telos Art Publishers latest number in their series # 19, Art Textiles of the World: Canada. at the MCCT photo:Joe Lewis

Yvonne Wakabayashi a Japanese Canadian who as a small child was interred along with her family during WW2, works in silk from a small family mill in the Gunma prefecture, Japan, in the Arashi shibori technique. Wakabayashi has developed her own style from this traditional technique. After folding, wrapping and stitching the silk, it has been inflated into sculptural forms rather than just fluffed/fanned out to expand on its own. She created a peaceful looking ‘creature’ made of silk using a mixture of hand manipulated, organic form.. You can read more about the exhibition and book in fQ Volume 5 Issue 2/ spring 2009

Yvonne Wakabayashi, Pina fibre seaforms (set of 2) on exhibit in fibreworks 2010 at Queen's Square Gallery in Cambridge

Mackenzie Frere Recollect 1, linen, turkey red, weft kasuri, five panels each 32 x 149 cm, 2008/2009 from "Lieux de memoire" exhibition curated by Denis Longchamps for the third edition of the “Biennale international du lin de Portneuf .” 2009 [photo by Joe Lewis taken at Montreal showing June 9th -24th 2010, Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay,

Mackenzie Frere who is the person behind ART/CLOTH/TEXT blog and on-line gallery POPLAR he teaches at ACAD University is a weaver and dyer who has been exploring Japanese dyeing methods like Kasuri.[tied resist] He spent time in Japan last spring with co worker Bill Morton visiting Arimatsu, a town known for shibori [among other places]. Bill Morton, is a master of traditional Japanese fabric dyeing techniques, having worked for a decade at the Kunio Isa Textile Studio, in Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto is highly regarded for maintaining traditional textile techniques.

If you want to find out more about Shibori visit the World Shibori Network

WASHI

In June of 2008 the World Washi Summit occurred with over 35 exhibitions across and around Toronto "Washi Over Time" exhibit at the Japan Foundation gave an historical over view as a base to the other exhibition. Organized by Nancy Jacobi from the Japanese Paper Place whose dedication to traditional Japanese paper making process brought 3 makers from Japan: Hiroshi Tamura from Ino- machi in Kochi Perfecture, Hiroaki Imai from the Niigata Prefecture and Shinji Hayashi from Kurotani, to show them how artist from different parts of the world used their paper.

Historical Illustration and photograph of the continuum (images provided by organizer)

"On Saturday June 14th 2008 at the Japan Foundation during the final panel discussion the reality of this summit hit home. The exhibitions of the Washi World Summit provided a visual adventure, however, the presence of washi remained constant but undefined. During the Summit the creation of washi was demonstrated, and its usage in a variety of media by a number of artists was explored, but it wasn’t until the paper makers themselves spoke at the wrap up of what the event meant to them that all became clear. Earlier that week at the Textile Museum Hiroko Karuno during her talk about Shifu (paper weaving) said there were 10 people in Japan practising Shifu, on Saturday night one of the paper makers from Japan Shinji Hayashi said when he came to Kurotani 12 years ago, a village with the longest consecutive history of paper making had 30 households involved in paper making; now there are just 3." this if from my post Naming the Maker: washi world summit wrap up

The Washi Seen Blog keep a running journal of exhibition and workshops as the happened and provide a good overview of the summit activities the World Washi Summit Website has not been maintained and is no longer up but the archive on the Japanese Paper Place can provide more information of the event and the subsequent exhibitions. .
sites of interest:

Kochi where paper maker Hiroshi Tamura is from is the largest prefecture of the four on Shikoku Island. The Japanese Paper Museum in Ino is from is devoted to documenting this artform, and also sells an array of beautiful paper products.There is a regional /municipal site that is bilingual http://www.pref.kochi.lg.jp/soshiki/english/ and the museums site is Japanese only Japanese Paper Museum

Niigata Prefecture where paper maker Hiroaki Imai is from is located on the island of Honshū on the coast of the Sea of Japan.There regional bilingual site is http://www.pref.niigata.lg.jp/

Kurotani is where paper maker Shinji Hayashi is from i found 2 sites Kurotani Washi and Kurotani Japanese Paper Hall

FASHION, Art and life

Woven Jacket by Mildred Avendano: cotton warp, hand spun paper weft,
on display at Kozo Studio 257 Broadview Avenue part of the World Washi Summit 2008

Art Gallery of Hamilton
123 King St W, Hamilton, ON, Canada.

From Geisha to Diva: The Kimonos of Ichimaru, May 10 to September 1, 2008, Organized and circulated by the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, curated by Barry Till

"This internationally successful touring exhibition presents a lavish array of more than twenty kimonos of one of the most famous geisha of 20th-century Japan: Ichimaru (1906–1997). From a life of rural poverty, the adolescent Ichimaru began as a low-rank geisha, and blossomed into one of the most revered and elegant geisha, known to possess the singing voice of a nightingale. Signing as a singer with Victor Recording in 1931, Ichimaru soon left the geisha world, becoming a full-time diva and one of her country’s national treasures. In her lifetime, therefore, the exceptional Ichimaru was a major figure of both the centuries-old Japanese geisha tradition, and the modern, Western phenomenon of popular recording star.

As a singer Ichimaru promoted traditional Japanese music and folk melodies, and continued the geisha tradition of elegant, stylish dress. Alongside Ichimaru’s kimonos, the exhibition includes several related objects, portraits, and publicity photographs of this renowned geisha-cum-diva. "

This is from the press release issued by the gallery. I found out about this exhibition while watching OMNI TV it was on a public service announcement about local 'ethnic" events. I got in touch with the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Once I got to the show the other exhibition were brilliant.

Great New Wave: Contemporary Art from Japan, May 22 to September 7, 2008 , Co-presented by the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Curated by Sara Knelman and Lisa Baldissera

The textile work Sayaka Akiyama who has created large-scale mapping projects is included in this exhibition. You will see an exquisite earlier work of hers in the entrance foyer, from a residency at the Mori Art Centre in the Roppongi neighbourhood of Tokyo . For this show, she did a 5-week residency in Hamilton two related pieces – a diary project consisting of 14 intimate works that incorporate textile techniques and materials with hand made paper (all made on site, using local materials) and a large map project relating her journeys and experiences in Hamilton.

To read about this body of work and see other images "The Story of a Walk Told with a Needle "An interview with Sayaka Akiyama.by James Jack published in the Tokyo Art Beat 2009-07-28.

you can also read Leah Sandals interview with Sarah Knelman posted on Thursday, July 31, 2008 Interview: Sara Knelman on "Great New Wave: Contemporary Art from Japan"

There are catalogues for these two exhibition co produce with the Art Gallery of Greater Greater Victoria available throught the Galleries or ABC ART BOOKS Canada

November 19th 2008, this is an Issey Miyake on loan from Adrian Clarkson opening of The Cutting Edge curated by Patrica Bentley at the Textile Museum of Canada featuring contemporary and historical garments on lone and from the museum's permanent collection.[photo taken by Joe Lewis with permission of TMC}

Textile Museum of Canada The Cutting Edge curated by Patricia Bentley, Nov 12, 2008 - Jul 7, 2009

Methods used to wrap two-dimensional textiles onto the body change and adapt in response to society's needs and cultural preferences. The Cutting Edge will examine the simplest methods for dressing the human form and will trace the development of ever more complex garments through to the twenty-first century.


Miwa Yanagi was part of Great New Wave: Contemporary Art from Japan, at the AGH 2008

This is just a sampling of Japanese and Japanese influenced work I have seen in the past 7 years

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February -March textile round up.

2011-02-22T02:49:00.002-05:00

Dorie Millerson's " Streetcar" currently on display at *new* Gallery 906 Queen Street West, Toronto, February 16 – 27, 2011

Its time to start making plans for the next 6 weeks of travelling to textile events. the Toronto One of a Kind Spring show starts at the end of March, [March -30 - April 3] while the TMC annual Shadow Box exhibition and Silent auction kicks off on February 23rd and is open for bidding until 7pm on Thursday March 3. In between then and now you have a few days to run into the 2nd edition of the 20 x 20 at the Montreal Centre of Contemporary Textiles to bid on the pieces on display


jacquard by Lisa Lee Peterson, Indiana, US

June J. Jacobs, Meacham Saskatchewan

This year along with the 20 x 20 work there is a selection of current and former students work for sale. Zent Keymole, a graduated in who launched his menswear business in 2009, his Snow Knit, pillow of Bamboo and silk had a interesting structure.

Zent Keymole, Snow Knit, Bambou et soie (coussin Blanc) $ 200.oo


Isabella Hayes Course: Knitting Equipment Fall 2010 Session

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March

Vancouver

Sandcastle and Wave, by Ruth Jones,

Selvedge by Ruth Jones
March 4 to April 5, 2011 | Daily 10 am – 7 pm
1 - 1666 Johnston St., Net Loft Granville Island
tel [604] 669 8021 | shop@circlecraft.net | Admission: FREE
For information about other upcoming gallery exhibitions, visit: www.circlecraft.net

Ruth Jones is an artist who works both in the medium of paint and of fine hand woven tapestry. Her studio is in Vancouver. Following degrees in Classical Studies from the University of British Columbia and in Fine Arts from the San Francisco Art Institute, she completed the graduate program in Tapestry Design and Production from the National School for Decorative Arts in Aubusson, France.

In addition to developing her unique line of work, she creates site-specific imagery on commission for private, public, and corporate clients. Her client list includes IBM Head office in White Plains, New York, the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver, and the Governor-General's residence in Ottawa.

Nurturing Words

Toronto

MADE presents
Patch Work: felt quilts by Kathryn Walters
March 3 - June 26

Gladstone Hotel Cafe
1214 Queen Street West.
opening Thursday March 3, 9:30 - 11 pm
regular viewing is 7am -10pm daily

" Kathryn Walter reworks remnants from her studio production work into this series of quilts. Pieces of pressed wool industrial felt, mostly squares and rectangles, are ends from the cutting table where Walter works with basic shapes to maximize the yield of material and lay the ground for her modern, minimalist aesthetic. the quilts have no planned design. Rather like paintings the artist arranges the pieces in relation to one another, making choices of form and colour, over the course of building the whole". from the press release

Kathryn Walter and her production company FELT Studio were part of FABRICation - Studio Production Textiles for Interiors, August 24 - October 24, 2010 at Cambridge Galleries Design at Riverside. As the curator of the Textile Museum of Canada's Beaver Hats to Hockey Pads: A Canadian Social History, 1999-2000 and participant in exhibitions such as: New Landscapes: Design Transforms Canadian Furniture Curated by Rachel Gotlieb, at The Design Exchange, Toronto, 2001 and Canada House, London, UK, Fall 2002, the juried exhibitions FiberArts International 2007, at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Pittsburgh, 2007, Fibreworks 08, Cambridge Galleries
Cambridge, 2008 as well as Fashioning Felt curated by Susan Brown at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, New York, 2009. her work has gained international recognition in both design and art world.

5 Yard Vessels, seen at fibreworks 2008 these vessels show off the versatile sculptural quality of industrial felt. Each unit is made from one strip of felt 3/8” x 1” x 5 yards long and represents Walter’s ongoing explorations of manipulating single pieces of felt into an array of objects and wares.[photo by Joe Lewis]

Artist Talk: Sunday March 6th 2 pm, Art Bar,

This is one of a curated series of textile exhibits at the Gladstone Hotel as part part of the hotel's art and design incubator program
.
MADE is Shaun Nicholson and Julie Moore, MADE is http://www.madedesign.ca/ located at 867 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario

Lois Schklar-Thirty YearsMarch 2-March 20 2011
*new* gallery
906 Queen Street West, Toronto

opening reception: Saturday March 5: 2 - 5 p.m.

Thirty Years of Dolls, will trace the journey of her doll making through the display of 30-40 dolls, early work from 1979-1986 and mid career work from 1991-2003. Half of the work in the exhibition gallery will be on loan from collectors and the rest from her own inventory.


a selection of dolls by Lois Schklar

This the last exhibition at *new* gallery which is closing its doors

"After eight fulfilling, creative years on the Toronto arts scene, *new* gallery will close at the end of March 2011. Thank you to all the artists who have exhibited with us and to the public for its support!" from the collective

THE ARTIST PROJECT TORONTO – 200 INDEPENDENT CONTEMPORARY ARTISTS, ART CHATS, COMPETITIONS, 3D WORLD LOUNGE and MORE
March 3 – 6, 2011 / Queen Elizabeth Building, Exhibition Place

Soon Cho, who will be in Booth I-2 in the UNTAPPED section of the Artist Project this is Hidden Silhouette, plastic gimp, 150" x 60" this piece is was at the entrance to Radiant Dark 2010 visit her website at http://www.sooncho.com/

These three pieces are by Lorraine Roy shown at last years Artist Project. Her textile and embroidered pieces. which have very complicated constructed surfaces, richly coloured and textured. see more at her website
www.Lroytextileart.com

The Artist Project Toronto will offer a sensory experience to all those who attend. From the presentation of incredible works by over 200 independent artists, including the popular UNTAPPED, an exhibition that introduces the work of talented emerging artists, to The 3D World Lounge Created by SONY introducing photos shot with the latest 3D technology. The Lemon Competition shows artists’ interpretations of this interesting theme and Installation Alley displays creations beyond one’s imagination. Art Chats is a special feature where five industry experts share their insights and ignite a passion for fine art. Speakers explore how to “find your art style”, help “understand how art defines communities” and visit “the joy of abstraction” and “ways to understand the significance of contemporary art”.

WHAT’S YOUR ART STYLE? MANNY NEUBACHER & ANYA SHOR, THE ART STYLISTS
FRIDAY, MARCH 4TH, 7-8PM

I met the Art Stylist at the TIAF last fall they have a wealth of information at their fingertips and practical advice for buying and collecting art. Art Chats is designed to educate new and existing collectors on trends and techniques as well as discusses the unique qualities independent artists hold in the art world. This year the following speakers for the three-day event are:

The Art Stylists, Manny Neubacher and Anya Shor, “What’s Your Art Style?” / Friday, March 4th, 7-8pm

Manny Neubacher and Anya Shor of The Art Stylists will help you overcome any apprehension you may have when buying your first piece of artwork. Learn the basics of art buying with an introduction to various mediums, genres and trends that will assist you in finding the right piece for your home and lifestyle. They will offer tips and insights that will make any first-time buyer feel at ease.

Faye Carmella Mullen riding her tidder todder in Untapped: Installation Alley 2010. This massive timber creation on which Mullen tries to balance herself (an Artist) with bricks (civilization) can she maintain it? can we give art the weight it needs to stay afloat..

Melony Ward, Publisher, Canadian Art, “The Vitality of Visual Arts”/ Saturday, March 5th, 1-2pm

Melony Ward, publisher of Canadian Art magazine, will host a lively panel of artists from The Artist Project. Canadian Art is a prestigious, award-winning, quarterly magazine that showcases the best of contemporary Canadian and historical art. With dynamic images, layouts and writing, Canadian Art presents the vitality and variety of visual arts in Canada.

Ross Bonfanti' with his mixed media [petrified and thread bare] teddy bears Totem [photo by Joe Lewis TAP 20010]

Ross Bonfanti's Teddy bears sitting on David Bromley's Boxes [Printed Linen Mounted on Board] hearken back to childhood. better times [photo by Joe Lewis TIAF 2009]

Ross Bonfanti will be in booth 311this year, He is from Toronto but I first came across his cement Teddy Bears at the British art dealer Rebecca Hossack Gallery's booth at the International Art Fair a few years ago. to see more of his work visit www.awolgallery.com

Betty Ann Jordan, “The Joy of Abstraction” / Saturday, March 5th, 3-4pm

Art writer, art educator, columnist and tour leader Betty Ann Jordan makes looking and talking about abstract art a captivating process. In this illustrated talk she identifies key ideas and terms relating to abstraction in art and she’ll look at the best abstract painters and sculptors of the 20th and 21st centuries. She will also discuss works by artists in The Artist Project who are applying similar methods and working in an abstract or semi-abstract mode.

This is the work of Shu-yu LU who wis in Untapped Open Gallery Booth O-11 This is printed and embroidered organza in 7 inch plastic hoop.

Last year when i final made it around to the far back end of the building where the Untapped Open Gallery was I asked artist in the next booth to take this photo to prove I was there.

Beck Cab by Shu-yu_Lu

Shu-yu Lu won 2010 Best of Fibre as chosen by Susanne Warner Keen at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition.
you can see more of Shu-yu_Lu work in my OCAD Material Art & Design Thesis Exhibition 2009 album
http://www.facebook.com/?sk=messages&ref=tn#!/album.php?aid=246632&id=890860310

Artists Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins, “We Can Go Here, or We Can Go There” / Sunday, March 6th, 1-2pm

Collaborative artist duo Jennifer Marman and Daniel Borins speak about the city, the art market, the culture market and how it all fits together. In their discussion, they will talk to the choices that artists and art-supporters make and how they define our city as a creative community. They will discuss how art is changing Toronto and how artists, the market, galleries and institutions interact. They will also address what goes wrong when any one of these pieces of the puzzle does not fit together, or one of them falters.

White Party Dress (my name for this piece) embroidered gampi paper and buttons. by Noelle Hamlyn, 2010 The Artist Project visit her website www.noellehamlyn.com

William Huffman, “Five Things About Contemporary Art (That You Didn’t Know You Already Knew!)” / Sunday, March 5th, 3-4pm

Associate Director of the Toronto Arts Council, William Huffman explores five truisms or modern(-ish) proverbs that are immediately recognizable to the broader public but in this case related to contemporary art. The “Five Things” will look further into the mythologies and misconceptions of the art world, reveal the artistic process and its system of valuation, and highlight the ways in which viewers bring new meanings to work.

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And that is just what is happening in the next 2 weeks

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

2011-02-16T03:03:00.002-05:00

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.

Shattered Piano

We live by the grace of the death of souls, we die by the grace of their lives.
- Empedocles*

Jannick Deslauriers:Traces et linceuls

February 12 - March 12 2011

CIRCA -Art CONTEMPORAIN

372 Ste-Catherine Ouest.Espace 444-

Montréal.Québec

*Jannick Deslauriers http://www.jannickdeslauriers.com/

CIRCA -Art CONTEMPORAIN http://www.circa-art.com/Home.html

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Montreal 11/02/ 2011, Sarah Garzoni: Corps étranger, at Art Mûr.

2011-02-16T00:46:00.000-05:00

Sarah Garzoni. Narcissus, Tribute to Isadora and Charles D. 2010, Sewing machine, taxidermy, casting and Feathers, 321 X 16.5 X 24 n

Sarah Garzoni : Corps étranger

January 8 - February 26, 2011
Art Mûr
5826 St _Hubert St
Montreal, Qc,


Sarah Garzoni, Breaching, 2010, corset, plate, cire dents de requin, [corset, flat, wax shark teeth] 38.5 X 21 x 17 cm

Corps étranger: "Animism rested as a primitive impulse within early anthropological assumption, removing and debasing any sense of spirituality from the carcass. The hunted, abused, utilized existence of a living being was lessened through a theoretical trope that could render it useful. Of course, these beasts of burden could be nothing to us, they lack the very essence of being: a soul."

from essay by Michael Rattray

I came across the work of French artist Sarah Garzoni last fall at the Toronto International Art Fair at Art Mûr's booth while checking to see what Cal Lane pieces they had brought. [see facebook album TIAF October 28 2010 ] Since it has become a habit to drop by their gallery when ever I am in Montreal because of its close proximity to the MCCT [Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles] I was quite happy to run into Corps étranger.

The opportunity to see more and a variety of Garzoni's work was much appreciated. The difference between an image on a website and the real object is always better. Along with the sculptural taxidermy pieces there was a selection of her garments constructed with digitally printed textiles.

The imagery on these 2003 garments are close up details of human flesh, nipples, hair, moles and scares. The series of limited edition clothing is entitled Topodermie [ don't look for a French to English translation it is Topography and Taxidermy squished together ] There is an interesting connection between all this flesh printed or stuffed.

Nipple Dress

Explaining her process for the Topodermie work on her website describes the process of taking close up pictures of flesh, isolating the elements she wants then using those images she using basic patterning rules and lays out a number of recognizable designs that replicate "Animal prints" stripes four corner repeats etc. Then digitally prints the cloth which is then made into clothing. As clothing is what we use to hide/ cover the skin this clothing which uses skin as its pattern is ironic to say the least.

Sarah Garzoni : Corps étranger

January 8 - February 26, 2011
Art Mûr
5826 St _Hubert St
Montreal, Qc,

visit her website for more about her work http://www.sarahgarzoni.com/

Art Mûr http://artmur.com/

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Montreal 10/02/2011: Jacquard 2 X 2 Montreal Tokyo, Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges.

2011-02-16T00:29:00.001-05:00

Left to right: Mitsuko Akutsu, Louise Lemieux Bérubé, Julianna Joos and Emiko Nakano they are standing in front of the diptych 'Flowers 2" by Louise [photo by Joe Lewis]

Jacquard 2x2 Montréal/Tokyo :
Emiko Nakano, Mitsuko Akutsu, Julianna Joos and Louise Lemieux Bérubé
January 22 to March 6, 2011

Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges
5290, chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges
Montréal Québec

On the left the right side of the diptych 'Flowers 2" on the right " Un orteil dans le vide" by Louise Lemieux Bérubé

This exhibition was presented at the Embassy of Canada, Prince Takamado Gallery in Tokyo

September 9 – November 3, 2010 this is its Canadian premier.

"This exhibition presents works by Louise Lemieux Bérubé together with works by Canadian artist, Julianna Joos and Japanese artists, Emiko Nakano and Mitsuko Akutsu, all of whom have worked at the MCCT. Although all the artists use the Jacquard technique, each expresses her own themes in her own ways."

Also in the exhibition "L’envoiée", 2009, by Louise Lemieux Bérubé is made of Tencel, linen, wool, stainless steel and copper wire. Photo by Joe Lewis at the launch of Textile Arts of the World: Canada from Telos Art Publishing at MCCT April 2009

Louise Lemieux Bérubé

Born In Montréal, Louise Lemieux Bérubé has received a BA at the Université du Québec á Montréal, She has studied Jacquard weaving at Rhode Island School of Design. Her woven textiles have received numerous mentions and honours in Canada and in many countries.

She has co-founded the Montréal Centre for Contemporary Textiles. She is the author of Le Tissage créateur (Creative Weaving) a comprehensive text book on weaving. She is recognized internationally for her knowledge and artworks on and computerized Jacquard weaving embroidery.*

Mitsuko Akutsu

Untitled work by Mitsuko Akutsu

Born in Tokyo, Mitsuko Akutsu has a BFA, in Industrial Design from the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music. She has been studying Jacquard Weaving at The Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles (MCCT) with a fellowship. She is a professor at the Aoyama Gakuin Women’s Junior College.

She has had solo exhibitions: Computerized Jacquard Weaving, MCCT, (CANADA), Project Gallery Pronio-Arte (Tokyo).

Between 1980 and 2008, she has exhibited twelve times in Tokyo and Kyoto.

Her group shows are: Cut the Edge /Weave the Line/Textile Arts, Mobilia Gallery, Ca. (USA); About Jacquard, MCCT (CANADA); Computer Aided Textile Art, Wocoal Ginza Art Space (Tokyo), etc.*

Mitsuko Akutsu presenting her jacquard woven artworks at the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles in March 2009

Emiko Nakano

Emiko Nakano's jacquard "From Where to Where" 1 and 2

Born in Tokyo, Emiko Nakano has a B.A. from Tokyo Zokei University and Rikkyo University and an MFA. from Cranbrook Academy of Art (USA). She is a former professor at Tokyo Zokei University.

She has had solo exhibitions at Tokyo Central Kaigakan (Tokyo), the Museum of Modern Art (Brazil) and the Senbikiya Gallery four times, among other venues. She has participated in juried exhibitions and has been invited to many group exhibitions in Japan and abroad. She has won several prizes the following events: Fiberart International (USA) three times, the International Triennial (Hungary), the Biennial of the Miniature (Poland), and the Japan Contemporary Arts and Crafts.*

2010, 195 X 87 cm, Cotton and Polyurethane

detail: the grass is a brocade and rises from the surface

Julianna Joos

Prière series by Julianna Joos, 2009, 100 X 150 cm, cotton and natural linen.[Prière as in Pray rug]

Julianna Joos is a Canadian artist from Montréal. Her professional career started thirty years ago; she has had over twenty solo shows and has participated in more than a hundred group shows around the world. She has won two international awards: Premio Acqui (Italy, 2005) and Voir Grand (Montréal, 2002). She has started Jacquard weaving in 2004 after many years in printmaking. She has a BA from Concordia and a Masters degree from Université du Québec á Montréal. She presently teaches at Dawson College.

Prière 8 by Julianna Joos, 2009, 100 X 150 cm, cotton and natural line

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If you are in Montreal or passing through between now and March 6, take the opportunity to go and see this exhibition. In the passed 5 years I have seen the jacquard work of approximately 50 people exploring jacquard weaving. Most have been single pieces in large group shows sometimes 2 pieces, I was in a two person exhibition and have only had 2 opportunities to see solo exhibition. With hand woven jacquard being a relatively new process being used by artist, weavers and textile designers as a tool for making work and considering the expense of owning or accessing them creative evolution of the media has been slow. To see how these four artist use the loom to create an individual vocabulary and compare them is one way to develop a critical understanding of jacquard as a medium.

visit

Louise Lemieux Bérubé http://www.lemieux-berube.com/
Julianna Jooshttp://www.julianna.jujoos.net/index.html

Jacquard Time Line

Weaver Franz J. Ippoldt discussing his non computer assisted jacquard hand work, at "jacquART Weaves; Franz J.Ippodlt" left Damask silk and right "Pogodenburg Garden" Velvet, 1998- 2003 60 meters. for the German National Museum, warp organzine silk , polchrome, weft: weft silk and sliver strips [photo:joe lewis]

Humming Bird by Stacey Harvey Brown. woven on a hand-jacquard sample loom from 1880s with a weaving width of just 13", and a four-shuttle drop box with flying shuttles. It is card-operated. This particular loom has a 3 repeat.Information and image provided by Stacey Harvey Brow

While computer assisted design and driven jacquard looms are where most of this exploration and creation is going on there are weavers such as Franz J.Ippoldt and Stacey Harvey Brown who are working by hand on non powered machines. Stacey Harvey Brown has a number of looms and runs workshops at her home in the Staffordshire Moorlands district in the UK. visit her website The Loom Room

Ruth Scheuing "Penelope Meets Ada Lovelace", computer assisted hand-woven Jacquard, 40 x 64", 2006 Shown in "Binary Fiction : Digital Weaving 2010" at the Eisentranger- Howard Gallery in Richards Hall on the Lincoln Campus downtown During TSA 2010 symposium

Wen-Ying Huang from Taiwan: "Uniform" 2008, Stainless steel wire, coated copper. Double weave woven on a TC-1, sewing. 65 ㎝ x 34㎝ x 83㎝. Shown at “thinking different / thinking jacquART” July 26 September 6th 2009, Textile Centre Haslach. Austria

Petter Hellsing from Sweden "Urban Weft" 2008/09, Jacquard woven, hand and machine embroidery cotton rayon, wood, 30 x 40 x 70 cm (each)part of 2009 Thinking Different Thinking JacquART [photo:Joe Lewis]

Laurie Addis, Extract 2, 2009, 51.5” X 30.5 “, Linen and silk painted warp, digital Jacquard, hand woven, Shown in "Binary Fiction : Digital Weaving 2010" at the Eisentranger- Howard Gallery in Richards Hall on the Lincoln Campus downtown During TSA 2010 symposium

Detail of Extract 2

Exhibitions 2000 -2011

e-textiles: ventures - jacquard weaving, 2000-02 group exhibition curated by Mariette Rousseau-Vermette, touring: Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto; + locations in Canada,
Australia and USA; CD-ROM catalogue.
Inspired design: Jacquard and Entrepreneurial Textiles: January 2008 at the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design in Hendersonvill North Carolina. You Can read about this exhibition and conference in fQ Volume 5 Issue 2/ Spring 2009

thinking different / thinking jacquART July 26 September 6th 2009, Textile Centre Haslach. Austriayou can read this exhibition in fQ volume 5 Issue 2 Preview: thinking different/ thinking JacquART by Beatrijs Sterk

"jacquART Weaves; Franz J.Ippodlt" July 26 September 6th 2009, Textile Centre Haslach. Austria

Lia Cook: Faces and Mazes Curated by Wendy Weiss, the Robert Hillestad Gallery at the University of Nebraska spring of 2009. Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto (April 9 - October 17, 2010)
Read my profile of Lia Cook in fQ Volume 6 Issue 2/ summer 2010 Looking at Lia Cook through the Maze:

"Binary Fiction : Digital Weaving 2010" curated by Janice Lessman-Moss at the Eisentranger- Howard Gallery in Richards Hall on the Lincoln Campus

Anna Zaharakos, Studio Z , Prototypical jacquard woven chair cover weaving with application to the chair. presented at Inspired Jacquard & Entrepreneurial Textile January 2008

Louise Lemieux Bérubé exhibits in France, New Textile Exhibitions at the ROM

2011-02-02T19:54:00.001-05:00

Warisole et Sethi from Louise Lemieux Bérubé's "Aimez-vous les uns les autres/ Love one another"
[image provided Louise Lemieux Bérubé and used with permission]

Master Jacquard weaver and Canadian crafts person Louise Lemieux Bérubé has just opened in her second international exhibition in six months. Jacquard 2X 2/ Montreal- Tokyo which was presented at the Embassy of Canada, Prince Takamado Gallery in Tokyo September 9 – November 3, 2010. "Aimez-vous les uns les autres/ Love one another" opened at the Church Confluences Polycarpe in Lyon France on January 23rd.This exhibition of jacquard woven hangings was first seen during the Second edition of the International Flax Biennale of Portneuf "Sacred Flax, flax carrier of memories, flax of the future" in June 2007,

"For my participation in the Biennale du lin de Portneuf – I presented a monumental work installed in St. Joseph church in Deschambault. To illustrate my theme/title « Love one another », I have first photographed different men and women, coming from different continents, identified in different social and religious environnements. – I then chose to couple them in an natural and architectural scene. It is displayed in Deschambault, along with a musical soundtrack inspired by « the Canticle of Canticles ». "

.... Louise Lemieux Bérubé

Photos from the January 23rd opening

[image provided Louise Lemieux Bérubé and used with permission]

Louise Lemieux Bérubé, distinguished pioneer in the innovative use of Jacquard techniques in textile weaving was born in Montreal, Quebec. Bérubé graduated from the University of Quebec at Montreal with a degree in Art History. She also studied Jacquard textile design at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as textile studies with Olivier Masson and Francois Roussel in France in the late eighties and in the nineties.

Lemieux Bérubé is the Founder of the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles, which she continues to direct, and where she has taught students from around the world. She regularly works with universities and schools in teaching textile work in Montreal and through courses and conferences in Canada, as well as in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the United States. She is also the author of Le Tissage créateur (Creative Weaving), a text book for weavers of all levels.She is featured in the Telos Art publication "Textile Arts of the World: Canada"

to see photographs of the work visit Louise Lemieux Bérubé's website at: http://www.lemieux-berube.com/

Please note

Jacquard 2x2 Montréal/Tokyo :
Emiko Nakano, Mitsuko Akutsu, Julianna Joose and Louise Lemieux Bérubé
January 22 to March 6, 2011

Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges
5290, chemin de la Côte-des-Neiges
Montréal Québec

Meet the artists on February 10 from 5 to 7 pm.
–Images provided Louise Lemieux Bérubé and used with permission

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New exhibition unveiled at the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume, Royal Ontario Museum.Level 4, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal Riotous Colour, Daring Patterns: Fashions + Textiles 18th to 21st centuries

Flavia Redelmeier Exhibit, Fashion and Interiors: Late 18th – 21st Centuries
Li’l Abner fashion textile based on comic strip by Andy Capp
Silk screened cotton tabby , United States, 1950 - 1959
ROM2006.84.1 Gift of the Textile Endowment Fund [image provided by Royal Ontario Museum © 2011. All rights reserved]

New exhibition unveiled at the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume
Royal Ontario Museum
Level 4, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal
Riotous Colour, Daring Patterns: Fashions + Textiles 18th to 21st centuries

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) has unveiled its newest installation in the Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume. Riotous Colour, Daring Patterns: Fashions + Textiles 18th to 21st centuries is a dazzling display featuring over 120 textiles and costumes from around the world drawn from the ROM’s extensive textile and costume collection. These historical and contemporary printed textiles, many on display for the first time, provide insight into the lives of textile makers, sellers and users.

" This new exhibit demonstrates that fashion exists in vivid colour throughout the world and the desire to look smart has driven many of humankind's technical advances,” said Dr. Alexandra Palmer, Nora E. Vaughan Fashion Costume Curator, Textiles and Costumes in the ROM’s World Cultures department. “These displays feature some of the ROM’s finest examples of late 18th to early 19th century textiles, ranging from women and children’s fashions to pattern-dyed textiles of Africa and Asia.”

Gallery Highlights

At the entrance of the Harris Gallery, the Jennifer Ivey Bannock Exhibit changes frequently to highlight new acquisitions, curatorial research and textile-related topics in the news. The newest display entitled Clothing as Canvas presents paper fashions that emulate textiles, and fashion and textiles that copy printed paper from the 1940s to the present. Included in this section are the first paper dresses made in 1966 by Scott Paper Limited, Bandana and Op Art, and MPH Design’s digitally printed World Trade Center Tyvek© dress, as well as a silk dress imprinted with newspaper headlines, designed by John Galliano for Christian Dior. This noteworthy garment was worn in 2000 by Torontonian Kara Alloway.

Lynda Hamilton Exhibit, Pattern-Dyed Textiles of Asia and Africa, Wrapper with five repeats of exotic fruits and
flowers (detail) Painted, mordant- and resist-dyed cotton tabby, Made in India for the Sulawesi market
1720 - 1750, ROM2008.81.1, This acquisition was made possible with the generous support of the Louise Hawley Stone
Charitable Trust [image provided by Royal Ontario Museum © 2011. All rights reserved]

The Lynda Hamilton Exhibit showcases the Pattern-Dyed Textiles of Asia and Africa and the wide range of techniques used to create them, revealing the little-known links between hand and industrial printing and eastern and western traditions. Examples in this exhibit include a wide selection of East African kanga wraps, West African mud and tannin cloths, a Japanese stenciled kimono, a batik sarong from Indonesia, two shiromani wrappers from the Comoros Islands, a screen printed cotton tabby woman’s jacket, and dress by Norma Kamali from the early 1980s.

Woman's dress and man’s T shirt designed by Jean Paul Gaultier , Textile based on painting Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels by Jean Fouquet, Dress and T shirt produced by Fuzzi Spa Photo silk-screened nylon machine knit, Designed in Paris, France; made in Italy 1994, 2001.128.9 Gift of Christopher Estridge (T shirt) 999.113.3.1 Gift of Karen Mulhallen [image provided by Royal Ontario Museum © 2011. All rights reserved]

The Flavia Redelmeier Exhibit, highlighting Fashion and Interiors: Late 18th – 21st Centuries, explores the manners in which many leading artists have applied their work to printed textiles. Examples include a 1955 man’s tie and a 1966 woman’s shirt by Pablo Picasso and a 2007 digitally printed textile designed by Toronto-based Jeremy Laing and Jeremy Stewart for Laing’s collection. Fashion designers frequently utilize high art for a fashion print, with outcomes often witty, ironic and political. The textile used by Jean Paul Gaultier in a 1994 dress and a man’s T-shirt co-opts the scandalous early French Renaissance Melun diptych by Jean Fouquet. Virgin and Child Surrounded by Angels (c.1450) depicted the contemporary beauty Agnès Sorel as the Madonna in an eroticized pose and dressed in the height of fashion. Dame Vivienne Westwood’s Sex Pistols handkerchiefs (1976-1977), printed with a tattered Union Jack and a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II with a safety pin in her nose, are also displayed here, as are Valentine’s Day panties by the Canadian Smoking Lily Studio (2002). These are printed with Pierre Trudeau’s portrait in an ironic response to his 1967 remark that “the state has no business in the bedroom of the nation.”

Flavia Redelmeier Exhibit Fashion and Interiors: Late 18th – 21st Centuries
Ancient Horses Frightened by the Voice of the Oracle furnishing textile (detail)
Based on a painting by Giorgio di Chirico (18881978) designed by Adriana Bitter for
Scalamandré Silks Inc. Silk screened, warp: cotton; weft: rayon/cotton tabby New York, Long Island, United States
1946, ROM2001.22.2 [image provided by Royal Ontario Museum © 2011. All rights reserved]

Striking and Innovative: Printed Fashions in the 19th Century features women and children’s fashions, c. 1790s-1880. These demonstrate the manners in which inventive manufacturers enticed consumers by combining hand and mechanical printing techniques, thereby creating new colours and patterns. The resultant fashions using the latest scientific inventions in textile production clearly signified modernity. A woman’s cotton day dress and belt (c. 1826-34), printed with wood block and engraved rollers in abstracted floral geometric forms, illustrates the complexities of these 19th century fashionable textiles. Other examples included children’s wear in finely printed cottons that, although carefully sewn and often boned, were practical because they were washable. A fine muslin gauze dress c. 1868 – 1872, was beautifully printed in Scotland with a motif of thistles influenced by the photographs of Adolphe Braun, a textile designer turned photographer.

Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume
The Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume opened to the public in April 2008 as part of the Renaissance ROM expansion project. Named in honour of Mrs. Patricia Harris, in appreciation of the ongoing generous support of Mr. and Mrs. William and Patricia Harris, the Gallery is located on Level 4 of the ROM’s Michael Lee-Chin Crystal.

The above information has come from the ROM Press Release.

Patricia Harris Gallery of Textiles & Costume
Royal Ontario Museum
Level 4, Michael Lee-Chin Crystal
100 Queen’s Park
Toronto, Ontario
www.rom.on.ca

What the Well Dressed Chair is Wearing This Year: IDS 2011 kicks off

2011-01-28T06:40:00.004-05:00


A tattooed pillow perhaps?

"Black Nior Chair"

Why not a Tattoo? This is from "The Chair Source" the model is the "Black Nior Chair" it was a prop/ accessory in the Eurolite booth #1010

As the Toronto International Design Festival kicks off I had the chance to hear British designer Rachel Wingfield of Loop.pH (UK) deliver a talk at OCAD University " “ArchiLace: Ecomimetic Space Design” was a look at her textile design education, and her journey to her current design practice. working with lace making techniques to build surface and structure at the the same time.

image from Loop.ph facebook profile

You can see more images of their work on Flicker http://www.flickr.com/photos/loopph/
and find out more about them at http://loop.ph/bin/view/Loop/WebHome

After the talk it was off to "All You Need Is Love " opening night party at the IDS 2011. A gathering of industrial and interior design fans, furniture, accessories, ideas, food and rink..."All You Need Is Love". and when i say furniture i mean chairs. As usual I look to the Prototype, Studio North and DESIGN/GEN/NEXT exhibitions for the new in design thought. lets just say design tendencies are more sideways then backwards and forward and I find similar shapes to the shapes of last year and the year before. What i am hoping for is the next design by last years designers.

Everro is designed by Edmonton designer Andrea Leinter. it is made of foam covered with worsted wool and held together with steal straps. "Prototype" 2010

Davaide Tonizzo, Toronto, "GIG" materials; Birch. cotton fabric over foam, plywood base

"Prototype" 2011


Farhad Shabania's chair "flip flop" can be use as a rocker or is stationary when rolled the other way. it is clever and has an upholstered seat. "DESIGN/GEN/NEXT" 2010


Bram Sawatzy, Edmonton " Have a Seat" ver 4.1 lounger materials: paper, glue, wood veneer, felt steal tubing, "Prototype" 2011

Evan Bare, Toronto Hub Chair

materials; Birch Plywood, water based finish, 100% wool fabric over soy foam, Jute suspension sixoeight.com

" Prototype 2011"

Some one suggest I look to the schools to see why the furniture designs look to store bought cloth when it comes to upholstery rather then artisan made. It is true that there is no industrial weaving equipment to produce and finish upholstery weight material in any school in Canada, but that doesn't negate the hand woven. It is more a lack of cross disciplinary interaction and that applies in industrial design, fashion and textile education. This year however there was a moment of excitement when I came across a modular carpet square coming from an unexpected source in the DESIGN/GEN/NEXT display.


Modular carpet tile designed by Humber College Interior Design students

Students from Humber College Interior Design program designed and produce an original modular carpet tile pattern with Milliken and Company a US manufacturer. Students Dorothy Beckford, Abigail Edgar, Tomasz Kwec and Brianna Pattille researched existing modular carpets and from there they worked on developing and refining a unique modular carpet design.

A look around the GEN/ NEXT there is a sampling of textile and fibre work with Sheridan showing the work of a student from the textile department

Pillows by Diana Briere


Chair(ish) by OCAD University student Cassandra Alves

Studio North showcases ateliers and designer-makers from coast to coast, with artisanal weavings from Armstrong Textiles (HALIFAX), graphically-inspired furniture from Trashbonbon (MONTREAL) and hand-crafted wood furnishings from Shawn Place Design (PRINCE GEORGE). What’s more, Studio North is a great place to check out the latest textiles, prints and wall coverings by Rollout, Manor 12, and Nicole Tarasick. Witness the wonders of glass by Gregor Herman, Trio Design, and Tsunami.


Drop by Armstrong Textiles and see if Leslie has made any progress on her Tapestry loom


Andrew Ooi Free Folding Artist

Andrew Ooi is a self taught Toronto born artist. His intent is to 'bring a new light to origami' through its practical application to modern living spaces. Ooi is always looking for new and inventive ways to apply his unique brand of origami, particularly within the realm of domestic and commercial spaces where he seeks to perfectly blend expression with practicality. With this in mind, Andrew Ooi's craft is that of "Lived Art". His work is not simply meant to be passively enjoyed, as perhaps a sculpture or a painting, but rather takes an active role in forming the energies within the spaces it inhabits.

Silk Screen printed Pillows by OCAD University 3rd year Graphic design student Nicole Tarasick

digatly printed textiles and wall papers by
Lucia Kinghorn Bespoke Textile Design

www.luciakinghorn.com

Bespoke textile design service providing original designs for interior spaces and objects.

Atelier 688 is a one stop shop for the best in young Canadian Art and Design works with a strong emphasis on reclaimed and revitalized works inspired by the natural environments that surround our cities.

www.atelier688.com


Double sided woven blanket from Oleana

Oleana is a small ethically-run company on the west coast of Norway mainly producing colourful, quality knitwear. At this show, we will be presenting the OLEANA collection of blankets, designed by award winning Solveig Hisdal, and made in Norway www.oleana.ca

Interior deign objects by Lilly Yung

This year the Ontario Craft Councill is feature the laser cut felt work of the late Lilly Yung 1947 -2010.

"Born in Hong Kong, Yung received her Ph. D. in Immunology at the University of Alberta where she also studied printmaking. She began making jewellery in non-precious materials in 1986. Since 1994, she used textile techniques in wire and beads to transform them into exquisite jewellery. Her work has been exhibited across Canada and internationally, and has won numerous awards in both printmaking and jewellery. Yung was a founding member of the artists run fine craft gallery *new* in Toronto, as well as a co-editor of NewViews, a series of notes and reviews on Canadian craft practice." form the OCC websites announcement of "the Genius That Was Lily Yung: ahead of her time " exhibition which is currently running at their Queen west Gallery space, January 6 - February 6, 2011
OCC Gallery, 990 Queen St. W., Toronto

Moving out of Studio North and into the main body of the IDS I came across New Carribean Design: Guyana wai wai baskets which another of enterprising designer Patty Johnson and another of her international collaborations. the most recent was working with west coast and northern interior aboriginal artisans which was presented last fall at the Queen Quay Gallery at Harbourfront. This one is with Liana Cain and Shu Shu Kaywe –the oldest master weaver in the Guyanese community. along with the baskets Patty told me there are some fine embroidered clothes that weren't on display during the party but will be out for the rest of the show.

Visit their website to read more about the project. http://www.newcaribbeandesign.com/index.html

felt "Lambs" by by Ronel Jordaan

Year after year the Toronto design shop "snob" brings an incredible collection of antique and contemporary art from Africa.Hand felted seamless Rock Pillows made by Ronel Jordaan of 100% wool have been a hit in past years, this year Ronel Jordaan has created felted lambs. these hollow with the felt is stretched of light weight armature. There is button and beaded pillows, a feather chandelier, not to mention all the furniture and sculpture. This is not work made for the tourist trade.

Button pillows: Hand crocheted in copper wire, using buttons. the are down filled, each piece individually signed by craft worker

Nigerian piece of leather and shell

As I queried at the beginning "What is the well dressed chair wearing?" and the answer was tattoos, now I ask what is the well dressed lamp wearing? The answer of course is a sweater.

GEA floor with zipper by Arturo Álvarez

knitted Silicone: white, black, orange or blue
GOOD DESIGN Award 2008
H: 180 cm
Ø: 28 cm

Both the sweater wearing light and the Chairs with the Tattoos are from Eurolite

"•Over One Hundred lines of designer products! •We source both locally and internationally •We Specify •We Design •We Manufacture •We work with You in all of your Commercial, Residential and Hospitality needs •Now in our Twenty-Third year! Booth #1010

200 Queens Quay East Unit 6
Toronto, ON
Canada, 416.203.1501
www.eurolite.com
"The Chair Source" "Black Nior Chair"

No Toronto art and design event is complete with out a new wire constructions from the elegant hand of Sophie DeFrancesca this one from Galerie D*Este 1329 Greene Avenue Montreal, QC Canada www.galeriedeste.com

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This Bev Hisey's " plaster and lath" hand Tufted carpet at R.A.D. 899 Dundas Street west part of Do Design : Thursday, January 27 to Sunday, January 30, 2011, 29 displays a long Dundas Street West between Bathurst and Grace Street

To see more Images from the Toronto International Design Festival 2011 check out my facebook album of the same name

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