Fabricate: Natural dyes and white-work embroidery.

Last spring I began working on a series of samples for a project with my studio mate Jen Kneulman from Freshly Printed, taking a break from our usual work. We were interested in sampling natural dyes using discarded threads from the end process of our work, and also sampling polychromatic screen printing using natural dyes.

The time we spent playing with dyes, and paper and linen fibres inspired the beginning of our collaboration for Fabricate, a joint exhibition at Meredith Keith Gallery and Freedom Clothing Collective. Here is our statement from the show and  some images from the project:



White-work embroidery samplers:

Inspired by the intimacy and intricacies of embroidery techniques and textile handwork, this collaboration between Lizz Aston and Jen Kneulman explores the notion of the embroidery ‘sampler’ on a much larger scale than tradition dictates.Using natural dyes and linen and paper threads, each artist begins by weaving an inter-connected series of threads off the wall, creating a grid like base for the techniques explored. Naturally dyed threads are then used to bind, twist, stitch and affect form and pattern, thus creating a play of negative and positive spaces, light and shadow.

This collaboration is an exploration of the common techniques encompassed within the artists’ respective practices. Taking reference from pulled-thread work and white-work embroidery techniques, as well as traditional dyestuffs, this installation is used to create a visual dialogue that addresses the intimacy found within traditional textile work and how it is affected by scale, material and context.

Heir/Looms @ Studio Beluga, Montreal

 

Back in August, I had the opportunity to travel and take part in the exhibition: Heir/looms, at Studio Beluga, in Montreal. Although it was such a brief exhibition, I was really impressed by the scope of textile work in the show. I wanted to share with you an excerpt from the Catalogue put together by curator Nicole Dawkins, as well as some images from the exhibiton:

HEIR/LOOMS:

Threads of Attachment

Nicole Dawkins

The last decade has seen a quiet proliferation of handmade fibre-based work within the contemporary art world. Some have argued that the resurgence of craft practice in visual art- as well as the rise of the braoder DIY craft movement- are rooted in a detachment from and longing for material experience.

Making things with our hands promises to link us to an imagined past of more meaningful creative production and "connect us to what modernity seems to wrench away" (Glenn Adamson).

And yet at the same time, the material and creative legacies that haunt these works are often downplayed or positioned discursively as ruptures from or subversions of tradition- for example in the popular media refrain "This ain't your granny's craft fair/ embroidery/ quilting bee/ etc.".

This reflects, on one level, an implicit challenge to the binaries (individual vs. collective, sudden vs. slow, progressive vs. conservative, original vs. traditional) that continue to mark the (now permeable) boundary between "art" and "craft". In order to be accorded the status of art, craft objects need to be "transformed into autonomous artistic creations detached from traditional contexts" (Karin Peterson).

The original concept for HEIR/LOOMS grew out of what I saw in my academic work and my creative practice as a tension between the yeraning to reconnect with traditions of making, and conflicting desire to cut those threads. What would it be like, I wondered, to have contemporary artists who work with craft materials and techniques to present their work alongside familial or cultural heirlooms that they had inherited? The intention was not to critique these points of rupture or disconnect, nor to weave together an artificial narrative of creative continuity, but rather confront the complexity  and ambivalence and techniques of our respective heritages.

Drawing from the qualities of textiles- fluid, flexible, and interwoven- the works we decided to include in the exhibit tell a far richer and more compelling story than the simple juxtaposition of new works and old crafts. Instead, these twelve artists engage in distinct ways with the notions of "heirloom"- emulating or appropriating specific linguistic and creative traditions; revisiting nostalgic signifiers of family and home; incorporating hand-me-down and discarded materials; and collaborating on and with things left behind by mothers, grandparents, and anonymous strangers.

Disrupting the boundaries between hobby craft and art object, past and present, "traditional" and "contemporary", works that make up HEIR/LOOMS explore how we use textiles to remember, preserve, and construct the past as well as frame ourselves for future remembrance.

http://heirloomsexhibit.tumblr.com/

Thea Haines: The Fruit Cellar of Miss H...

Mason jars, fabric, thread. 2011

 

Amanda McCavour: Stand in for home

Thread, 2009 - 2010

Samantha Purdy: Egg

Cross stitched: Aida cloth, floss 2011

Tara Bursey: Crossed stitches, 2011

Lizz Aston: Antiquated Notions - Drop Stitch

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

Sarah Gotowka: Embroidery Sampler for 2011

Cloth, embroidery, floss.

Studies in Porcelain

Since i haven't updated my website in a while, I wanted to use this space to share with you a bunch of images that came out of the neat little material samples and studies I made leading up to the Studio Remix exhibition... I have a couple new projects lined up in the meantime including an exhibition at the Telephone Booth Gallery which is coming up on Nov. 30th, and includes the incredible work of Dorie Millerson, Pam Lobb and Amanda Parker.. so hopefully I will get a chance to dive back into working in porcelain again sometime in the new year and make some awesome new stuff for you to check out! hope you enjoy!

 

 

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.