Manitoba Galleries to Reopen at Last.



"Grace: Perception/Perspective", 20" x 20", 2020.

Covid -19 restrictions are beginning to ease in Manitoba and local galleries are at last able to invite visitors into their waiting spaces.  La Maison des Artistes, Studio Gallery in Saint Boniface will be featuring the work of Articulation member, Amanda Onchulenko. "Composition" is set to open to the public with Covid-19 protocols in place on February 17th, 2021, and will be extended until March 6th.



Daughter Emma was a huge help as they hung their first curatorial collaboration.



This show, "Composition", began at Articulation Textile Group's last in-person gathering in the fall of 2019. It was here that the group elected to focus on their individual studio practice in lieu of developing a theme or structuring group exhibit proposals around a pre determined and mutually agreed upon format or concept. They felt their personal passions and preferences for art and making would lead to more intimately developed thoughts and ideas. To that meeting, Amanda had taken some dye-sublimated samples she had made in order to sound off thoughts, ideas and processes with creative friends. While her initial thoughts did evolve and grow considerably during the process, it was Articulation Textile Group that motivated the earliest thoughts that would become this exhibition. 

 Articulation's "Connected Heritage" show at the New Iceland Heritage Museum in Gimli, Manitoba the previous summer, had inspired Amanda to develop a new method of presenting her quilted and collaged work.
Amanda writes: "As both a painter and textile artist I am keen to find relationships between the different facets of my studio practice.  In mounting "The Horizontal Series" there I found I liked the contrast of malleable textiles being presented on a rigid support, stretched as they were in much the same way I would prepare and stretch a canvas for painting.  I determined then to continue to refine and experiment with this mode of presentation in my next body of work in fibre. Below is an example.



 
Those samples I had with me in Calgary are a reminder that all creative work evolves. Sometimes our plans are quick to manifest while at other times those ideas and project starts percolate, or season, as Wendy Klotz would say, in the lost corners of our creative spaces until we are ready to take them further.

In 2008/9 I had applied for and been awarded a Manitoba Arts Council Production Grant. The project I undertook at that time sought to identify and isolate aspects of my painterly signature for use in textiles. My studio practice was united in colour, however, painting with dye onto fabric tended to read more as a water-colour, which did not accurately reflect the intensity of colour and colour reactions I was exploring in acrylic at that time. To replicate this intensity by painting directly onto fabric would require the use of thick, opaque mediums which would then prevent the successful use of hand or machine stitching. Explorations into commercial reprographic processes led me to Valley Fashions in Winnipeg and procured the beginnings of a collaborative working relationship that continues today.  


 The Healing blanket project shown outdoors above, is another way I have used dye sublimation to extract an image, or in this case vastly alter the scale of a painting or detail to be used in another application. 
By using dye sublimation I was able to take compositional details from my painting practice, essentially my creative signature, to use in my textile projects. The process allowed me to salvage intensity without compromising the workability of the fabric. It was from these initial samples that my current explorations in fibre developed. 


   
"Composition" takes an introspective view. What began as a proposed 8 piece project morphed into 16, 20" x 20" mounted textile panels. The show also includes two large Art Quilts: "Red Delicious", 58" x 58", 2009, the culmination of my initial experiments into reprographic processes, and "Rhythm and Blues", an intricately pieced topographical journey that illustrates my philosophy that art and making are a cumulative journey through process. "Rhythm and Blues" offers a different perspective and is representative of my mantra, 'from the leftovers of the last is where the next begins'. The image above, "Reflection: Remnant Beginnings", was one of the first of the series to be completed. It travelled with The Manitoba Craft Council's 2020 show last summer between shut down periods.



Figuring out, what's in a name.


What initially began as the re patterning or re blooming series morphed into  "Composition", from the Latin, componere, meaning put together... what something is made of and how it was formed, the structure of an art piece... as this term seemed to better describe the finished group as a whole. 

"Composition" is the accumulation of my experience. It represents the process of processing and observes the personal within the context of the universal. The experiential nature of textiles allowed for an intimate connection to memory, invited reflection as I worked through ideas of narrative, dialogue and story and softened the impact of formative experience. Covid-19 hindered many activities but the slow down did offer a silver lining in the provision of time to seek out sunny corners to work in at home when the studio was out of bounds. 





Other processes used in this work include: painting, photography, dye sublimation, embroidery, machine stitching, batik, collage and quilt making. In the making colour united with materials, symbols surfaced, patterns and themes appeared and rebloomed and the legacy of trauma eased.
The final product validates: 'You are seen and heard without condition'.

My gratitude extends to Valley Fashions in Winnipeg who continue to support my experiments in this medium and to the Manitoba Arts Council whose initial investment in my idea continues to inspire my explorations in fibre. I am also grateful to La Maison des Artistes in Winnipeg for the invitation to exhibit in their lovely light-filled space, and especially for their efforts to continue with the show in 2021 after its initial cancellation in November of 2020 as Manitoba locked down into a code red shut down.

"Child's Play: Rhyme/ Resonance", 20" x 20", 2020

At the Gallery this past weekend I was excited to visit with attendees and to see and hear how they responded to the work. One guest wrote...'Process is evident in many pieces, with the feeling of expansion and contraction, but not raw tension. Common threads of protection and guidance appear subconsciously in soft and hidden suggestions of images. Childhood traumas morph into forgiving images of innocence; there is a touch of tender whimsy and wry humour in its vulnerability. Hurt has been exorcised, contained, refashioned, and released into a natural world of colour and art.'
I am grateful to have such articulate supporters."


Covid-19 has dominated our lives this past year and though public spaces are slowly opening here in Manitoba, safety protocols are very much in place. I am excited to continue to show the work that has evolved through to March 6th. While there won't be this exact social distancing decal on the floor at la Maison des Artistes, this one comes to us from Donna Clement in Calgary, social distancing measures will be in place and keeping a polite Canadian distance and adhering to all Manitoba health protocols will be expected. I hope if you are in the area you will stop by to check it out in person.
Open Tuesday to Friday, 11am -5pm.
Saturday noon-4pm.
I might just be settled into a sunny corner to work on some hand work for Articulation Textile Group's next exhibit. Stay well. Stay creative!"







Amanda's Website
Lesley's Website and Blog
Wendy's Blog
Ingrid's Website
Donna's Blog
Donna's Website

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