Articulation Textile Group

An exhibition we all enjoyed was 'All Beings Confluence,' an interactive community art project spearheaded by Saskatchewan artist Martha Cole. She runs workshops in different communities across North America giving guidance on how to make large, transparent panels. She then loans collections of panels, according to the number requested, to be hung in a wide variety of spaces in many different communities. Viewers walk between the panels to enjoy works up close and to see the layered effects as different panels work together, such as these hens scratching beneath the flowers behind. Each panel is about one living being. It was interesting to note how many weedy-type plants were chosen when so much of the landscape is covered in commercial crops. This female connection with 'weedy' plants is from the time when women gathered them to feed and care for their families. This ancient knowledge continues to surface in women's artwork today. It is typical o...

The 3rd Canadian showing of Articulation and Material Girls' bodies of work opened in the Frazee Gallery on November 8th, 2013. ReBecca Paterson made it all happen. Bay of Fundy work and the River Thames work was hung together. Touching is allowed/encouraged       The exhibition is open until January 10th, 2014 Congratulations ReBecca, on presenting the work so well in the beautiful space you found.

During Articulation's visit to Toronto this November the members spent many hours at the Royal Ontario Museum. One of the delights was getting up close to El Anatsui's Straying Continents. A metal tapestry commissioned by the ROM in 2010. El Anatsui continues to use his signature flattened  liquor bottle tops but this work has large areas of the tops cut into lengths twisted together. As a result this work is more likely than his others to alter it's shape while hanging on the wall. 

The Big Leaf Maples of Cowichan Bay... (notice Vickie on the lower LHS) and Cow Bay itself, one of the quaintest little towns on the Island... for its' fences gates and boats, boats, boats...

We are all busy working on new pieces for the March 2010 show in Victoria, BC based upon the rain forest which covers Vancouver Island. In September of 2007 the group gathered in Duncan, BC as a base out of which trips were made around the Island. From Goldstream Park... to Victoria's Chinatown where we visited a Chinese Temple... orientation - L to R: Gloria Daly, Linda McKay, Vickie Newington, Lesley Turner, Miriam Birkenthal, Ingrid Lincoln, Leann Clifford, Wendy Klotz (Donna Clement taking the photo) and bought strange and wondrous fruits in the market to taste test later that evening at a BBQ put on by our host Gloria... This was all in our first day on the Island!

Today Articulation's Urban Textures body of work is being hung in the Mennonite Cultural Heritage Centre gallery, in Winnipeg. It will be the first time the whole body of work will be together. Articulation is a Canadian group of textile artists whose members live on 2 coasts and places in between. They produce their art in their own studios and it is only when there is a hanging that all of the work is sent to one place. It is always a thrill to see the work together, interacting with each other. Also, it is so interesting to see the different interpretations from the same inspiration that was gathered during our annual study week. The opening is on Friday September 18, 2009, where there will be members of Articulation is attendence. The exhibition is on until November 14, 2009.

All Articulation members have shut themselves in their studios and no one is hearing much from them these days as the date for their next exhibition gets closer. Using images from a week long study of the historical buildings of Winnipeg and after doing lots of research, they are each producing a series to be exhibited in the Mennonite Cultural Heritage Building Gallery, along with the work that has recently been hanging in the McMullen Gallery in Edmonton. The Mennonite Gallery is twice as big so they have all continued producing Winnipeg inspired works. And there was no shortage of inspiration in Winnipeg with its rich history and early wealth reflected in magnificent buildings. Each member is interpreting the 'Urban Textures' theme in their own way and using their own chosen stitch techniques. The architecture will be interpreted in a wide variety of textiles & fibres. The exhibition scope also includes the architecture of flowers as a response to floral displays they...