Studio Remix @ the Ontario Crafts Council

Just a quick heads up! this is the last weekend you have to check out the exhibition Studio Remix at the Ontario Crafts Council gallery, queen and ossington. 

The exhibition took over a year in the making, from the first conversation I had with curator Monica Chow when she visited me at the Artist Project in March 2010, to the final opening reception for the exhibition on August 4th.

The project was a huge undertaking, as each of us as we stepped out of our comfortable and familar studio practices to both teach and engage in the making of work in new materials.

Participating artists in the show include: Aneela Dias D’Sousa, Shuyu Lu, Benjamin Kikkert, Rose Angeli Ringor, Lizz Aston, Sylvia Nan Cheng, Micah Adams and Niko Dimitrijevic. Here is a look at some of the work:

Shuyu Lu, Assimilation (detail), 2011.

Textile hoops, stoneware clay, silkscreened underglaze, glaze

Micah Adams, Homemade Geology, 2011.

Fused and carved glass

Niko Dimitrijevic, Clouds, 2011.

Copper, brass

Lizz Aston, Porcelain 'wall paper', 2011. 

Paper, free-motion embroidery, burn-out, porcelain.

Exhibition catalogues are available at the Ontario Crafts Council, 
Here is an overview of what the show is about:

Ontario Crafts Council Gallery
990 Queen Street West
Toronto
http://www.craft.on.ca

There are many factors that contribute to an individual’s decision to pursue a life of craft.  Nostalgia and personal history, cultural identity and community or family relationships, can deeply inform the aesthetics and theme of an artist’s work, as well as the material and techniques that are employed to achieve the desired effects.  These ideas and concepts can be expressed in other artistic and visual ways, so what compels someone to work with craft media?  The unifying trait of all craftspeople could be described as an innate understanding of material: they possess an intuitive knowledge of process – a natural aptitude that is honed through continued education, practice and exposure, and the ability to manipulate material to translate their ideas and concepts into multi-dimensional form.

Studio Remix presents an opportunity to transcend a particular material and confront, or embrace, a different set of material challenges.  Eight Toronto craftspeople who work in one of the four primary craft media (ceramics, fibre, glass and metal) have been partnered with one another, forming four collaborative pairs of artists who work in two different materials.  Each participant has been tasked with teaching their partner the processes and techniques of their own material to the extent that each member of the pair will be able to conceive and produce work using the material they have just learned.

By removing these craftspeople from their comfort zone and presenting them with a whole new set of material challenges, Studio Remix puts form to the underlying forces that drive creative processes.  Correlations between different craft media are revealed, and new materials operate to effect change in established bodies of work.  After all, a change of scenery always presents a whole new way of looking at the things you see every day.

Love Lace International Lace Award Exhibition @ the Powerhouse Museum

As I mentioned in the last post, I am going to start updating you on all the great exhibitions I have seen over the course of the past month. The most significant of these is an exhibition that I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of during Sydney Design week at the Powerhouse Museum.
The preparation for Love Lace from initial proposal to making and shipping the work and finally flying out to Australia has been almost a year and a half in the making!

I can't even begin to describe the amount of anticipation and anxiety that has gone into the undertakings involved in making work for the exhibition, as well as shipping it internationally for the first time, showing up for the final installation check, as well as private and public openings. It has been a really moving experience being able to represent my country as a contemporary Canadian craft artist at one of Australia's leading arts and culture institutions.

The exhibition opened to the public on July 30th 2011, staging a ground-breaking exhibition of never before seen lace works by artists and designers from around the world. 130 lace works by 134 artists from 20 countries around the world will be featured in love lace which is open until April 2012.

The definition of lace in the exhibition includes 'an open network structure in which the pattern of negative spaces is as important as the solid areas.'
For my application I was interested in expanding upon my Anitquated Notions series to include a set of four new burn-out studies...

Here is a sneak peek at some of my work in the show:

Here are some highlights from my favorite artists in the exhibition:

I have been long interested by the work of artist Shane Waltener and was soooooo excited to finally see his work in person, as well as take part in his interactive installation. Here is an excerpt from his artist statement: 

Another World Wide Web (2011) consists of a series of modular web-like structures knitted in shirring elastic using a traditional Shetland lace technique. I am interested in how the work is moulded and shaped by the nature of the space and architecture where it is installed. 

Installation: Shetland lace knitting using shirring elastic

Another artist involved in the exhibition whose work I have been interested in for a long time is fellow Canadian Meghan Price, from Montreal.

Meghan had her work fabricated for her in Sydney where it was overseen by curator Lindie Ward, Lindie described the experience of watching the process of water jet cutting to make steel lace during the lecture: Not Just a Thread. Here is an image of her work:

water-jet cut powder-coated steel

Joep and Jeroen Verhoven of Demakersvan opened the same symposium, delivering a thought provoking lecture into the work that they make and their steel bobbin Lace Fence ...which is such a sought after product that it has its own seperate company and website! 

Metal lace fence (3 panels): bobbin lace technique using galvanised steel wire; fabricated in Bangalore, India

Mesne and supermanoeuvre: 

Pricking proposes a custom-made digital construction kit for lace-making, which diffuses the conventional roles of designer and consumer. This will take the form of an interactive interface that allows users to playfully craft and explore the algorithmic procedures of lace-making.

This was a really incredible piece! There were also a number of laser-cut paper patterns as a record of the lace forms being manipulated.

Some other works I liked include: Tomy Ka Chun Leung, Kim Lieberman, Michaela Bruton and Lenka Suchanek.

Unfortunately Janet Echelman's Tsunami would not be installed for the opening of the exhibition so I didn't get a chance to see it. If you are in the Sydney area over the course of the next year, it should be installed and up now, so please go check it out on my behalf!

Aerial lace installation: machine netting using Spectra® fibre

Hope you enjoyed everything you've seen!

I would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council for their support in making this exhibition possible for me.

        

Lots of new posts coming and an online radio interview with Crafted Spaces!

I am going to be posting a lot over the next couple of weeks just to catch up on all of the exciting shows I have seen or been a part of over the past few months!
I recently returned from Australia where I was there to attend the opening of my work in an incredible exhibition entitled Love Lace, at Sydney's Powerhouse Museum.

While I was there I also had the opportunity to attend a number of lectures and exhibition openings as a part of Sydney Design Week and COFA Design Festival. So watch out for some upcoming new posts on this and more!

Finally, today I had the opportunity to speak with a wonderful lady, Yvette-Michelle from Crafted Spaces.
Crafted Spaces is an online radio show featured on Blog talk radio every Wednesday from 1:00 pm.
The show focuses on the stories of local craftspeople, artists and designers in and around the Toronto area, as well as creative happenings and things to do. The theme explored in the show over the past few weeks has been a look into paper and its uses as an artistic material. Today I had the chance to talk with Yvette-Michell about  the work that I do and my relationship to this material. Here is a link to the interview. Enjoy!

Lily Yung & Kai Chan

Wednesday at the galleries:

This is going to be a busy and exciting week for gallery-goers, designers and art lovers alike, as Thursday begins the kick off of Toronto International Design Festival (TIDF). 

I have planned a strict itinerary for myself and am going to try and borrow a friends camera so I have some nice pics to show you later. I'm really looking forward to being inspired!

I'm planning to start off a bit early tomorrow after I finish up at the studio and visit two shows that I have been meaning to see for a while now. The first exhibition being a retrospective show of the late Lily Yung at the OCC.

I had the pleasure of meeting Lily at the 2010 Ontario Crafts Council - 

Award Winners Exhibition, where she was awarded the John Mather Award for Lifetime Achievement. Here is a look at some of her work in the show:

The Genius That Was Lily Yung:

ahead of her time

 

January 6 - February 6, 2011

Opening Reception Thursday, January 6, 6:00 - 9:00 pm
OCC Gallery, 990 Queen St. W., Toronto

Curated by Beth Alber, Anne Barros and David Kaye, The Genius That Was Lily Yung constitutes a retrospective exhibition of Yung's work from her early printmaking days to her explorations in jewellery using Rapid Prototyping (RP) systems.

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.

The second stop on my list is to see Kai Chan: A Spiders Logic

Exhibition Overview

A 35-year retrospective at the Textile Museum of Canada from November 7, 2010 - May 1, 2011

Kai Chan expresses the small moments of daily life, employing materials and techniques that speak to tradition and modernity. To view Chan's artwork is to see him as a ‘master of the unremarkable’ – twigs, thread, toothpicks and buttons are the ephemeral materials that he employs to create transfixing ‘other-worlds.’ He works with common, household ‘things’ that are reminders of his years growing up in China. Chan has altered the gene pools of what constitutes sculpture and what constitutes textiles by manipulating and representing elements of the natural world to conjure impressions that play on natural phenomena, geographical boundaries and cultural influences.

Additional Information

A Spider’s Logic brings together many key artworks that have never been seen together before. Significant focus is placed on new work made especially for this exhibition.

Kai Chan’s work is critically received equally within the discipline of textiles and the visual arts in general. He participated in the prestigious 12th International Biennial of Tapestry in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1985, and the equally notable International Triennial of Tapestry in Lodz, Poland in 2001, where he exhibited Ocean, one in a series of complex wall hangings comprised of thousands of toothpicks and thread – an indication that woven tapestry is now only one textile process among many, thanks to artists like Chan whose work is seen in a contemporary context of textiles as substance, structure and subject matter.

Love and Money

Love and Money

Dec 16th - 31st 2010 @ the Ontario Crafts Council

Opening reception: Thurs, Dec 16th 6-9pm

This year’s exhibition will explore the broad relationship craft and crafting has with commerce.  Craft(ing) is currently a multi-billion dollar industry.  From mainstream craft media personalities and the DIY Network to hipster how-to guides, mega craft fairs and fabric designers du jour, the commercial nature of the contemporary “crafting” movement often seems to starkly contrast the idea of crafting for necessity from days gone by.  On the other hand, there are people who turn to craft and craft processes for a sense of transcendence and autonomy.  Many would argue that there is more of a need to craft for crafts sake now than ever-- either to re-skill ourselves for an uncertain future, or simply to learn to slow down.

Are money and craft strange (or natural) bedfellows?  How does craft transcend issues of commerce?  How might one navigate or perceive the dichotomy of craft for love/craft for money? How do examples of contemporary craft and craft practices address or challenge issues of ownership, value, and exchange?


Participating Artists:Helen Benninger
Kalpna Patel
Leah Buckareff
Lizz Aston
Matt King
Meags Fitzgerald
Rachael Kess
Sandra Gregson
Stephanie Cormier
Steven Tippin
Wendy Walgate

'From Rags To Riches' - detail

My Ideas about Love & Money...

In response to the theme Love and Money I have been researching notions surrounding the saying ‘from rags to riches’. Taking cue from historical craft practices such as the art of spinning shifu (paper-thread), and the gathering of discard material to make Rag rugs or Clootie mats; I am interested in combining each of these processes as I work to re-define the values we apply to common craft materials as well as domestic craft objects.

Both shifu and rag rug-making developed as practices once born out of necessity, where coarse paper thread would be woven into cloth for work clothes and other household items, while the rags of old clothes were coveted for their reuse-ability, being knotted back together in the form of much needed objects.

‘From rags to riches’ incorporates the use of newspaper ‘rag’ and kozo papers as they are laboriously spun and crocheted into a delicate network of threads that make up the rag rug.

Through a sophisticated use of process and materials, the once ‘ragged’ and utilitarian object will be rendered precious and unusable, as emphasis is placed on re-evaluating the value of the materials and object at hand. Through my practice, I am interested in celebrating craft for love as means to continue to tap into the meaningful, intuitive and historical practices that employ the use of my hands.

Finished installation will be on display at the Ontario Crafts Council till Dec. 31st 2010

The Collective @ Triangle Gallery: 12 days of art and ideas

I recently participated in a collective show at Artscape's Triangle Gallery entitled The Collective: 12 days of Art and Ideas. This turned out to be the perfect opportunity to further develop my Hand-spun Kozo paper brooches, I have been working on over the past little while.
Each brooch is made out of a delicate network of thread that is spun from sheets of kozo paper using an old fashioned spinning wheel. The threads are then crocheted and starched into sculptural forms before being crafted into fine jewelery pieces.

 

I will be spending my time finding a home for these within a number of stores over the course of the next week... In the meanwhile, if you are interested in purchasing one as a gift for the holidays, send me an email at fibre@lizzaston.com and I can make one available for you.

Hand-spun Shifu paper thread

Over the course of the past five months, I have been working hard towards researching and collecting what little information I can on the relatively unknown practice of Shifu-making.

In the Japanese language, the word shifu refers to woven paper.  Shifu can mean the fine-as-silk paper weaving that was given as tribute to regional rulers during the Edo Period or the very rustic, utilitarian cloth woven by peasants by shredding leftover ledger books and weaving this against a bast fiber warp.

Traditional shifu is spun from hand-made Japanese tissues, or strong paper made from vegetable fibres.

Japanese tissue may be made from one of three plants, the kozo plant (Paper Mulberry tree), the mitsumata shrub and the gampi tree. The long, strong fibers of the kozo produce very strong, dimensionally stable papers, and are the most commonly used fibers in the making of Japanese paper (washi). Tissue made from kozo, or kozogami comes in varying thicknesses and colors, and is an ideal paper to use in spinning fine shifu threads.


Here is a chronology of images as my samples have progressed over the past few months...

 First attempts using a drop spindle & sampling with coarse papers

Pattern drafting paper, newspaper and misc handmade fibres.

 Tengu-jo tissue & misc papers.

Sekishu Tsuru - spun using a traditional Ashford spinning wheel

Various kozo papers. 2nd ball dip dyed using Madder Root.

Skeins wound into balls.

Hard Twist: Chroma!

Hard Twist is now on in full swing for its fifth year at the Gladstone Hotel.

If you get a chance to check out this show, there are a couple of real gems on each floor to take a look at..!

Here are a couple of my favorite pieces... (didn't get a chance to take my own photos... so those I found online will have to suffice!)

 

Shuyu Lu

 

Unknown?

Amanda McCavour - Spiro-graphs!

Hard Twist has become an important annual event within the Canadian textile art community as well as being a signature event for the Gladstone. For this fifth anniversary of Hard Twist 5: CHROMA! exhibit will be expanded to include public spaces on all four floors of the hotel and will run for two full months. It is free to the public 12pm-5pm daily in the third and fourth floor public galleries at the Gladstone. Year five of this annual juried exhibit is all about colour. Participating artists explore colour symbolism, meaning, relationships and perceptions through textile and fibre-based mediums.

Co-curators Helena Frei and Chris Mitchell invite artists to submit textile and fibre based works, which explore the expressive qualities of colour, colour symbolism, and/or the meaning, relationships and perceptions of colour.

2010 Participants:
Amy Bagshaw, Fiona Bailey, Susan Bidinosti, Monserrat Brandan, Kerry Croghan, Dhashi Farha, Lindsay Fisher, Holly Gabel, Angela Iarocci, Say Ivison, Shuyu Lu, Alanna Lynch, Amanda McCavour, Renata Meirelles, Joyce Melander-Dayton, Melanie Schaffer, Kat Shaughnessy, Mafalda Silva, Marcy Sperry, W Collective, Sarah Waldman-Engel, Jennie Wood

Fibreworks 2010

Im really excited to see Fibreworks 2010 which will be opening this weekend at Cambridge Galleries. There is a free shuttle bus to Cambridge for the opening reception, call ahead and book your space!

Fibreworks 2010
September 11-October 31, 2010
Jurors: Catherine Heard and David H. Kaye

Canadian artists from coast to coast participate in this juried competition, now in its 13th edition. The competition honours the community's rich textile manufacturing history and provides a showcase for the extraordinary work carried out by Canadian artists working in the fibre medium. This year's jurors, Catherine Heard and David H. Kaye, have selected works that truly represent the diversity and ingenuity of these artists.

FABRICation
August 24-October 24, 2010
Curated by Esther E. Shipman

This exhibition features the work of established and highly regarded textile designer-entrepreneurs from across Canada, whose work bridges the worlds of art and commercial fabrication. Each of the studios in the exhibition is represented by several examples of their work, providing an opportunity for a closer look into their individual design styles, products and collections.

Arounna Khounnoraj

Joy Walker

Kathryn Walter

Toronto Outdoor 2010

This past July was my first year exhibiting at the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition in Nathan Phillips Square....
I really enjoyed the show. It turned out to be a crazy weekend beginning with setting up in an extreme rain storm followed by a two day intense heat wave. I was lucky to be surrounded by good neighbors as well as a number of my harbourfront friends in the adjacent booths. All in all the weekend turned out to be a good one full of some emotional highs and lows, familiar and new faces, booth tours and lots of ice cream and lemonade. Here are a couple of pics from the show...

a special visitor

my booth