Articulation Textile Group in Calgary 2019

By -
Articulation Textile Group recently met in Calgary to discuss, review, implement, and plan all things textile in our combined worlds. All six members were in attendance and I have to say I am very inspired by the work ethic of this creative group. Donna Clement and Wendy Klotz, our local hosts, secured a lovely AirBnB in a residential neighbourhood. Its five bedrooms and five bathrooms provided a lovely base to work through the business of being an exhibiting group spread across half of Canada. 


The living room (above) was the location of after supper gatherings and where we worked through the critiquing process, one of our working topics during this year's meeting. Gathering annually keeps us all aligned, informed and inspired, and reminds us why we appreciate the diverse backgrounds and perspectives of each member of our group.


During our stay, Calgary put on a beautiful hoar frost after an early snowfall.

This year (beyond reviewing our healthy exhibition schedule for 2019: Forest and Sea and the Place Between, at Portals Gallery in Duncan, BC and Connected Heritage at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba) we focused on looking ahead at what each of us is currently working on and how our independent studio practices might inform Articulation exhibits in the future.


Our trip wasn't all work and no play, though we diligently made it through our agenda and beyond, we did make time for some creative discovery. The Esker Foundation Gallery in Inglewood is currently exhibiting the work of Jeffrey Gibson and Nep Sidhu and it was an inspiration.


Jeffrey Gibson, "To Name An Other", 2019; 50 Garments, polyester, nylon thread, 50 Drums, wood, deer hyde, acrylic ink. Shown at Esker Foundation, Calgary, AB, courtesy the artist and Kavi Gupta, Chicago.


"Jeffrey Gibson is an interdisciplinary artist based in Hudson, NY. His artworks make reference to various aesthetics and material histories rooted in indigenous cultures of the Americas, and in modern and contemporary subcultures." (Esker Fall brochure). Collaboration and performance feature in Gibson's practice and even installed as a stationary exhibit his dye sublimated costumes read as performance.


"Anchoring Nep Sidhu's show, "Divine of form, Formed in the Divine", are works from Sidhu's "When My Drums Come Knocking They Watch Series". These large scale tapestries variously commemorate how percussive rhythms are formed through labour, function as architecture of ceremony, structure communication, and collectively evoke how cultural practices conjure aural and embodied rhythms that carry ancestral connections forward in time". (Cheyanne Turions, Esker Foundation, Fall 2019)



Our group is a curious bunch who are always eager to explore textiles. Donna Clement in red above and Lesley Turner, middle, inspired other visitors to listen in on their technical discussions as they examined and imagined the processes used. Ingrid Lincoln, above, may not be our tallest member but she does hint at the scale of these impressive tapestries from her behind the play vantage point.


Taking Ingrid's lead, we got a close up look at the creative process involved in these large pieces. It was interesting to see the simplicity of the zig-zag stitch as the foundation of these very graphic, tightly corded and pristinely finished pieces.


Leann had to leave our group early to get back to her day job but that didn't stop the rest of us from gathering to work on new technological developments and flesh out a few new ideas, appropriately around the dining room table. 
 
Articulation Textile Group has been an exhibiting group for almost 20 years now. Brought together to undertake the British "City and Guilds" program in Calgary, the original group from across Canada developed a paradigm of meeting in Canadian cities to research locations collectively. The concept of developing bodies of work individually to exhibit collectively benefited from the thread of common experience. 


This time last year we were exhibiting our 'WAR: A Personal Response' work at the Sidney Museum. We found exploring our family histories to be a profound link to our personal cultures and a powerful starting work for expressing these stories in textiles. War has changed our approach to our collective work and is a paradigm we will be adopting as we develop our individual fibre arts practices to exhibit under the Articulation banner.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Art as Therapy From the Weyburn Mental Hospital, Saskatchewan

By -
Image
In 1930 Weyburn Mental Hospital, Saskatchewan was the largest building in Canada. Post WWII battle disorders caused a peak of the in-patient population in the hospital. The Soo Line Historical Museum in Weyburn has a large room of artifacts from the hospital, many of which are rather horrifying. They also have a collection of art painted by patients as a result of the art therapy program. A project Articulation members are working on is a personal response to war. Some of the members are looking at how war affects the whole family not just those who go to war.  The Soo Line Museum proved to be a rich primary resource for some members. Ingrid Lincoln, Donna Clement, Mandy Onchulenko. Equipped to carry out research: sketchbook/notebook, camera, a bag to hold pens, glue stick and gathered materials, sturdy walking shoes, dressed in layers and prepared for all weathers. But we do stop for meals. Leann, our host, had scouted out a number of different places for u
Read more

Elephant Rock Collapses - Hopewell Rocks, Nova Scotia

By -
Image
Elephant Rock at Hopewell collapses  .Read the news article here. It is a bit sad the Elephant Rock has collapsed to half its previous size. This is what the Hopewell Rocks looked like when Articulation visited in 2010 during their annual study session. Luckily several Articulation members preserved in their artwork the popular rock as so many thousands of tourists remember it. Wendy Klotz, Home and Away, wool, felting, hand stitching Here is Wendy Klotz's depiction of the rock as it was. Donna Clement, Erosion at Hopewell Rocks,  dyeing, painting, machine sewing And Donna's, worked in a different textile technique. Donna Clement, Erosion at Hopewell Rocks, detail
Read more

Gimli - a Little Bit of History

By -
Image
'In 1875 a group of Icelandic immigrants who had arrived in [Canada] moved to the west shore of Lake Manitoba where they had been granted a reserve of land by the Canadian Government...The immigrants formed their own administration based on a centuries-long tradition of democratic government...The Republic of New Iceland was created.' The Rural Municipality of Gimli was established in 1887. 'The early immigrants came full of hope for a new life of opportunities and settled the land made available through homestead rights. The free offer of a 1/4 section (64 acres) to common people, most of whom had never owned land was a major attraction. But there were many difficulties - dense bush, flies, field stones and harsh winters which had to be endured.' Quotes from various historic markers. The Icelanders brought their pagan religion with them and found many parallels and an affinity with the First Nations peoples' beliefs. This Unitarian church, bui
Read more