All Your Troubles Fall Away, wool, applique, quilted, 2008, about 80" square, by Barbara Todd
Barbara Todd collected pebbles from her family cottage on Lake Huron all her life. The title for this quilt comes from a quote by Agnes Martin, "if you can imagine you are a grain of sand...all your troubles fall away"
Self Portrait #4, paper, bamboo, double faced tape, 2012, 5'high, by Jerome Fortin
Jerome Fortin selected the paper for this sculpture from his urban Montreal surroundings and from his travels. Inspired by the Japanese healing ritual of making 1000 origami cranes, it is displayed like a kimono.
plain and twill weave home spun wool quilt, late 19th century, about 60 inches square, anonymous, Canada.
Solar Breath, colour video 62 minutes of the curtain in his Newfoundland cabin, 2002, Michael Snow
The viewing frame of the video is the exact size of the window. The sound of its movement dramatizes the simple natural beauty.
Stag, cotton, wool, linen, nylon, polyester, silk, 2012, by Grant Heaps
Thousands of postage sized cloth scraps were used to translate a small-scale vintage mass produced needlepoint to life size.
Hudson Bay Company Point Blanket, wool, twill woven, early -mid 20th century, 60 inches wide, made in England. Commissioned since the 1780's, these blankets are strongly connected with Canada's turbulent history of trade and exploration.
Over the weekend I visited
Dreamland: Textiles and the Canadian Landscape, now up at the Textile Museum in Toronto. All the work honours human imagination and a personal lived experience of the Canadian landscape. I was inspired to see the older pieces, reminded of the ingenuity, every day struggle, and visions of utopia that early Canadians had. I loved learning that the first book of poetry published in Canada in 1868 was entitled
Dreamland by Charles Mair.
All Your Troubles Fall Away, wool, applique, quilted, 2008, about 80" square, by Barbara Todd 
Barbara Todd collected pebbles from her family cottage on Lake Huron all her life. The title for this quilt comes from a quote by Agnes Martin, "if you can imagine you are a grain of sand...all your troubles fall away" 
Self Portrait #4, paper, bamboo, double faced tape, 2012, 5'high, by Jerome Fortin 
Jerome Fortin selected the paper for this sculpture from his urban Montreal surroundings and from his travels. Inspired by the Japanese healing ritual of making 1000 origami cranes, it is displayed like a kimono. 
plain and twill weave home spun wool quilt, late 19th century, about 60 inches square, anonymous, Canada. 
Solar Breath, colour video 62 minutes of the curtain in his Newfoundland cabin, 2002, Michael Snow 
The viewing frame of the video is the exact size of the window. The sound of its movement dramatizes the simple natural beauty. 
Stag, cotton, wool, linen, nylon, polyester, silk, 2012, by Grant Heaps 
Thousands of postage sized cloth scraps were used to translate a small-scale vintage mass produced needlepoint to life size. 
Hudson Bay Company Point Blanket, wool, twill woven, early -mid 20th century, 60 inches wide, made in England. Commissioned since the 1780's, these blankets are strongly connected with Canada's turbulent history of trade and exploration. 
Over the weekend I visited Dreamland: Textiles and the Canadian Landscape, now up at the Textile Museum in Toronto. All the work honours human imagination and a personal lived experience of the Canadian landscape. I was inspired to see the older pieces, reminded of the ingenuity, every day struggle, and visions of utopia that early Canadians had. I loved learning that the first book of poetry published in Canada in 1868 was entitled Dreamland by Charles Mair.
7 comments:
'it's a long long way from Canada'....Joni Mitchell's song 'Dreamland'.....'dream on dream on'... Jan
I was just looking at the Textile Museum website and wished I could see this show in person. Thank you so much for the tour!
Makes me wish I lived in Canada! What an amazingly versatile fibre wool is.
Your blog is the closest I come to visiting all these wonderful pieces. Thanks for the tours, keep them coming, they are greatly appreciated.
oh yes, I wish I could see it in person, but your photos make me feel as though I got to see the most important things...
I love that red and black striped quilt.
Thank you for bringing us all these artworks. You are a source of knowledge, as always.
I was in Canada two years ago, for three weeks, trying to learn some english and other things about education. But one of my best memories of this time was the two day visit to Toronto and its Textile Museum.
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