Textile Tourism . The Toronto (Subway )Route

As July begins it is about the annual out door art exhibition in Toronto's Nathan Phillip Square at Queen Street West and Bay corner.As I walking out of the 2010 Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition through the Blue North section 3 hours after having entered through the same section I came across Zsuzsa Szoke and her work. Having studied at Sheridan she headed to NSCAD University to turn her diploma into a degree her work is entertaining, whimsical and care free,

Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition 2010 ( facebook Album )

The weekend before Austrian knit designer Veronika Persché who had organized the pre- ETN conference tours of Vienna last summer, was visiting and I was giving her a tour of the textiles on public display in downtown Toronto. We had started at the Textile Museum at 55 Centre Street and had walked the two blocks down to Nathan Phillips Square. to visit with Kalyna Pidwerbesky who had a booth at the Downtown Jazz festival

Blue Spiral brooch by Kalyna Pidwerbesky

Then went into city hall to see “Stitch In Time” in the basement of the rotunda. “Stitch In Time” made in 1984, is a  6 ‘X 24’ embroidery designed by Barbara Gordon and executed by the Toronto Guild Of Stitchery in celebration of Toronto’s 150th Anniversary after that it was down to King and Bay to look at the tapestries hanging in the bank towers. It is at this point I start thinking, well wondering why actually there still isn't a printed guided tour map of these textile works. I have been compiling information about them, suggested to certain officials at city hall and the archives that such a pamphlet or map might be welcome and nothing really has come of it.

Laurie Swim's " Breaking Ground" at York Mills subway Station unveiled March 17 2010 commemorating the 50 anniversary of the lives lost in the Hogg's Hollow cave in during the construction of the extension of the north bound subway system 

With quilted textile works in the Subway system and Goblin Tapestries in the bank towers at King and Bay, an Aubusson tapestry at One Queen Street East not to mention the ROM at the top of University on Bloor, the Textile Museum at 55 Centre Ave and two historic House Museums off of Queen Street east and west of Young Street there is an abundance of Textiles to be seen in downtown Toronto.  

MacKenzie House  at 82 Bond Street just behind St Michaels Hospitable two blocks east of Young of off Queen  St E. and Campbell House Museum 160 Queen ST W on the north west corner of University and Queen West do have domestic textiles in situ, the authenticity to the era of the house, provenance or if they are considered an important part of the museum's  i don't really know yet.

The “potager” growing in the front flower bed of Campbell House in July 2010 is an edible, but also decorative, vegetable garden. Thank you to City of Toronto Parks for this urban agriculture initiative in the heart of downtown

Campbell House is the oldest remaining house from the original site of the Town of York. Built in 1822 by Judge William Campbell and his wife Hannah, the home was designed for entertaining and comfort, and constructed at a time when the Campbells were socially and economically established and their children had grown to adulthood.

Mackenzie House is a historic building and museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada that was the last home of the city's first mayor William Lyon Mackenzie. Mackenzie was forced into exile in the United States after having led the Rebellion of 1837. He returned to the newly-created Province of Canada in 1850, and died in this house in 1861.

Barren Ground Caribou by Joyce Wieland at Spadina north Subway Station, and Laurie Swim's Breaking Ground at York Mills and six Goblin Tapestries by four tapestry weavers in the First Canadian Place at 100 King Street West and The Toronto-Dominion Centre  which has three Goblins, with two in the Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, and one in the Royal Trust Tower. 

Notes on and or websites for artist, architects and museums sites mentioned above 

Veronika Persché  http://www.persche.com/
Kalyna Pidwerbesky http://www.artofkaruna.com

Toronto City Hall was designed by Finnish architect Viljo Revell http://www.didrichsenmuseum.html

Construction commenced on November 7, 1961, and the building was opened on September 13, 1965 by Governor General Georges Vanier. The final cost of the new City Hall was approximately $31 million.

Tragically, Viljo Revell died of a heart attack 10 months prior to the opening ceremonies. He was 54.

Nathan Phillips Square is home to two sculptures, British sculptor Henry Moore's masterpiece Three-Way Piece No. 2 (usually called The Archer) has been installed in a place of honour right in front of City Hall. and on the southwest corner, Oscar Nemon's statue of Sir Winston Churchill, former Prime Minister of Great Britain is located.

Joyce Wieland “Barren Ground Caribou” 1978,  8’ X 30’ quilt. at Spadina north Subway Station, Collection: Toronto Transit Commission. There are several images of this piece on the internet this link will take you to the only copy righted one Barren Ground Caribou © Joyce Wieland this is found at the Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art/ Canadian Art Data Base at York University
 
Laurie Swim " Breaking Ground" a quilt commemorating the "Hogg's Hollow Disaster" which happened on March 17 1960 when five immigrant Italian workers lost their lives while building a new water main in suburban North Toronto. The unavailing of this large community quilt marked the 50 anniversary

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When you explore your community take note of where you run into textiles, facebook them, blog them share them. But please make sure you ask permission to take photos and if you may post them. Obviously getting the artist permission is necessary,  and if you are posting an image of a museum artifact having the right information about is good.

Textile Tourism is an interesting way to look at the world. Find more "Routes" below

march 2010 agenda / cross Canada check in

You can follow my March Agenda as I get out to events and post them in this Facebook Album of the same name
March 2010 agenda/ cross Canada Check in

LAMENT, by  Maggie Tchir in the By Hand - BC and Yukon  contemporary craft exhibitions from Canada, Korea and BC and the Yukon. exhibitions were a part of the cultural Olympiad in Vancouver and will run until April 11.

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Before looking at what is about to happen here is a quick look at what has opened and is continuing in different parts of Canada.

British Columbia

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Ruth Scheuing working on a TC-1 loom during her residency in the Tech lab at the Surrey Art Gallery, where she is working with a hand-operated Jacquard loom on a series of pieces based on the Silkroad between January 23 – April 3, 2010.

for more information go to her SilkRoad on her Project Blog

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 Openings

Morija Reeb felt at Circle Craft.

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March 5 – 30, 2010 Circle Craft’s Annual Student Scholarships Exhibition
This exhibition features the works of Circle Craft’s 2009 student scholarship recipients. Featured will be: Hamza Vora & Raneen Nosh, Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Ceramics Program; Morija Reeb, Capilano University, Textile Arts Program; Patrick McIvor, Kootenay School of the Arts , Metal Program; and, Angie Arsenault, Vancouver Community University, Jewellery Program.

Circle Craft Shop & Gallery, Daily 10 am – 7 pm,
1 - 1666 Johnston St. , Net Loft Granville Island

For information about o the r upcoming gallery exhibitions, visit: http://www.circlecraft.net/

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Quebec

tricot nouveau by Lysanne Latulippe (AKA majolie)

January 18th, 2010 - From January 27th to March 12th, 2010, the Montreal Centre for Contemporary Textiles (MCCT) presents tricot nouveau, an exhibition of recent works by Lysanne Latulippe (AKA majolie) prize-winner of the Prix Lucien-Desmarais, in 2008. The opening of the exhibition will take place on Wednesday, January 27th 2010, starting at 5 pm.

instaltion view of Lysanne Latulippe work at the MCCT Gallery

Montreal Center for Contemporary Textiles / Le Centre des textiles contemporains de Montréal, 5800 St-Denis espace 501, Montréal (Québec)
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Diagonale, le centre des arts et des fibres du Québec “Ombres à porter” by Amélie Brisson-Darveau until march 6

The relation between the self and the surrounding environment and individuals is the central theme of Amelie Brisson-Darveau’s work. Fabrics and fibres as material and metaphor allow her to explore these dimensions of human relations in time and space through performative actions. Different states of embodied experience and immediacy provide the ground for an aesthetic of presence.
In the recent project Ombres à porter, she traces her friends’ shadows to make patterns for clothing that she tailors afterwards. From these fluid, abstract shapes she creates phantasmagorical, improbable, unusable clothes. Their rich materiality merges into the real while at the same time their usability has to remain on an imaginary plane. The spectator is compelled to engage with the work by projecting his or her fleeting shadow onto the clothes. “I imagine the shadow as a form always in motion, approaching choreography. I visualize the work as a small portable stage (following me like a cloud) creating moving images similar to a dance.”

 
Diagonale, le centre des arts et des fibres du Québec

Opening at Diagonale this month

Traversée, Exposition à la Maison de la culture Côte-des-Neiges,

Buenos Aires : Florencia Vitón, Ester Nazarian, Eliana Castro, Hernán Sansone, Josefina Laratro, Mercedes Fidanza, Paloma Catalá del Río, Verónica Longoni, Luis Marte
Montréal : Alanna Lynch, Claudia Bernal, Lise Létourneau, Lyne Girard, Nicole Panneton, Héloïse Audy, Natalie Rolland, Karen Tam

March 11 - April 11, opening March, 11 5 pm

5455, rue de Gaspé, espace 203, Montréal

Alanna Lynch, Ugly White Fetishist, 2008, mix media. from You’re Too Close: Body Politics, Spatial Relations, March 10 to march 14 2009, Art Mûr, 5826 St. Hubert - Metro Rosemont
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TORONTO this March.

Mary Kroetsch "faces"

the 3 – 3 – 3 Group Exhibition,  Gallery Hittite, March 3rd to 24th, 2010.

107 Scollard St., Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1G4

The artist Project

 Queen Elizabeth Building, 180 Princes’ Blvd., Exhibition Place, 

Toronto, Ontario
 

Thursday, March 4: 7PM – 10PM (Opening Night Party)
Friday, March 5: 12AM – 9PM
Saturday, March 6: 11AM – 9PM

Sunday: 11AM – 6PM

Outcropping #3 2009 Lorraine Roy

Lorraine Roy: Art Textiles: at the Artist Project Toronto in Booth #320, www.Lroytextileart.com

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A Curious Development: new mixed media sculpture by EVA ENNIST:
March 4- 26, 2010
DAVID KAYE GALLERY
1092 Queen Street West
(entrance on Dovercourt)
Toronto, ON M6J 1H9

www.davidkayegallery.com 

2:00 - 5:00 p.m. Saturday, March 6th, to meet Toronto-based artist EVA ENNIST

EVA was on sabbatical last year from her teaching at the Ontario College of Art & Design and had the privilege of travelling to visit the Angkor Wat temple complex at Angkor, Cambodia. It was built for the King Suryavarman II in the early 12th century as his state temple and capital city. Her sustained visit over many days to this amazing architectural wonder has led to this new body of mixed media sculpture. The sculptures developed through her exploration of both industrial materials (concrete and wire mesh) and organic fibres, namely bamboo, reed and handmade paper pulp. The contrasts and similarities of these chosen elements reflect the influences and observations from her travels. The dualities of heavy and light, dense and open, natural and manmade, inherent in her materials, have also been compelling motivators in the development of this new work.

SELECTIONS FROM THE PERMANENT COLLECTION

March 2 – April 11, 2010
OPENING RECEPTION: Tuesday, March 9, 6:30 pm

Cambridge Galleries, Design at Riverside, 7 Melville Street South. Cambridge, Ontario

Cambridge Galleries Permanent Collection of contemporary Canadian Fibre Art is considered one of the best and most comprehensive in the country. The collection was conceived in homage to the region's rich textile manufacturing history and as a means by which to encourage and support outstanding contemporary work in the discipline.

This annual exhibition provides an excellent overview of Cambridge Galleries’ collecting activity over nearly 22 years, and demonstrates the diversity and ingenuity of Canadian artists creating textile based work. Works from the collection are frequently loaned to other art galleries across the country and beyond, however, only once at year at Design at Riverside, is there an opportunity to present larger groupings of related or thematic works here at home in Cambridge. In each subsequent year we build greater awareness of the collection and the artists whose work is represented.

Mary Misner
Director
Cambridge Galleries

IMAGE: (foreground), Arlene Turkington, Thin Skin - Thorn Nettles and Spikes, 2003. (background) Robin Morey, Dawning, 1985. Photo: David Popplow. Images courtesy of the artists.

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Noelle Hamlyn photographed at The Best of the TOAE 2009 at the First Canadian Place Gallery

 Noelle Hamlyn FIBRE - BEST OF CATEGORY, with an embroidered jacket, this one made of tea bags.

Noelle Hamlyn “Uncovering - The Blanket Form” Closing reception: Saturday March 13th, 2-5 pm.
At *new* gallery, 906 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M6J 1G6 www.new-gallery.ca

Anna Bourque Champion - Mezzopunto Retrospettiva
march 1- 28, 2010

Opening Saturday the 13th of March from 4-6 pm
North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge St, Toronto

Not your standard Berlin Woolwork.

Exuberant, joyful colour compositions using feminine icons from the twentieth century - such as the "Little Black Dress". Appropriating an art form that's been used to fill the idle time of women in the place of outdoor sports and education, Anna's work is bright, beautiful, playful and fun.

"Please join us at the Library on the Saturday the 13th of March from 4-6 pm to view the pieces. Bring your chequebook if you want to take one home."
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Laurie Swim will help unveil " Breaking Ground", now part of the City of Toronto ’s Permanent Art Collection, at the York Mills TTC station on March 17, 2010. 

Commemorating the  "Hogg's Hollow Disaster" which happened on March 17 1960  when five immigrant Italian workers lost their lives while building a new water main in suburban North Toronto. The unavailing of this large community quilt marks the 50 anniversary 

"The quilt serves not only as a memorial to the lives tragically lost while on the job, but also as a celebration of the spirit of community – the volunteers, city officials, organizations and corporations who worked together with a number of individual donors to create this commemorative portrait of a moment in Toronto’s history that should never be forgotten."

to find out more about Lauri Swim visit http://www.artquiltpublishing.com/

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Altered > Martina Edmondson and Monica Bodirsky

  March 17 -April 4

 *new* gallery, 906 Queen Street West, 

Toronto, ON M6J 1G6 www.new-gallery.ca

Opening reception Friday March 19th 5-7 pm

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Around the Frayed Edges
Curated by Laurie Carmount
March 18-May 29
Minden Hills Cultural Centre 705.286.2808 Minden, Canada
Opening Reception Friday March 19 at 4pm

Artists: Marianne Kyryluk, Carl Stewart, Robin Ripley, Jean Farrell, Heidi Hudspith,
David R. Harper, Jill Odegaard, Laura Trach, Liz Menard, Nadine Papp, Wendy O'Brien, Johanna Nousiainen, Fay Wilkinson, Audrey MacLean, Caitlin Erskine-Smith, Barbara Wisnoski, Erika DeFreitas, Carmella Karijo Rother, Suzen Green, Sandi Luck, Cynthia Jackson, Amanda McCavour, Ilona Staples, Karen Goetzinger, Catherine Vamvakas Lay, Karina Bergmans, Jane Tingley 

 

This exhibition delves into the outer edges of fibre arts. Fibre arts is a style of fine arts made with textiles and is more concerned with creativity and skill in the end product than functionality. In Around the Frayed Edges a narration will be spun through work that pushes the confines as to what an artist can do with fibre today. Twenty-seven fibre artists from across North America have created works for this exhibition. From sculptural to painterly to installations this leading edge exhibition addresses all of the visual arts elements – all in fibre.

 

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This Just a quick look at what is happening in March, this information has come from facebook event invitations, akimbo or directly to me from the Artist or Galleries where the shows are happening. 

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One Of A Kind Spring Show

March 31 -April1 2010

Direct Energy

 http://www.oneofakindshow.com

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